ANGELIKI DIMITRIADI Einwohner, 2004, p. 536), a way of becoming visible and seeking to effect change. Riots are a way of responding but also participating in these power relations. Already in July 2016, my last visit to the island, a field officer from an NGO based in the hotspot noted that tensions were escalating. The field officer expressed concerns about the limited police presence and the physical confrontations between certain nationalities. If the situation escalated, there was insufficient protection for both staff and migrants. There have been riots between migrants of different nationalities, against guards and NGO workers, as well as against asylum service personnel. Crucially, they are not solely the acts of specific nationalities. The Syrians for example have also participated in riots in anger against the EU-Turkey Statement and their sudden relegation to a lesser status that compels them to seek protection in Turkey rather than in Europe. For others, it is a way of expressing frustration but also a means of bringing about change: during the media coverage of the riots migrants made a clear demand for the acceleration of the processing of asylum claims. As previously discussed, a decision on the asylum application is the only way off the island, either as a result of deportation or thanks to the issuing of papers that allow for the transferral to the mainland. The current legal status of many is one of limbo, for they are neither deemed inadmissible nor offered international protection. Finally, for some, rioting is a way of demanding radical change to the status quo, through the opening of the border, the transfer to the mainland, or their selection (rather than exclusion). As the largest hotspot in northern Aegean, Moria has witnessed the most riots26. In October, Pakistanis rioted in protest at the delay in the processing of their asylum claims and after months spent in detention on the island. They moved against asylum officers and proceeded to light fires. Their nationality is important because it affected the manner in which their asylum claims were processed. Thus, their rioting was a means of reaffirming that migrants from Pakistan did have the same right as others. Riots are common in closed spaces of limited mobility, whether hotspots, detention centres or pre-removal centres. As noted by Campesi (2015, p. 429), «Italian pre-removal centres» have become «the main stage of migrants’ struggle against deportation». Similarly, the hotspots in Greece have transformed into the space where not only mobility but also asylum have been increasingly contested. Who is allowed in the territory and who will be kept at the border until the time they are deemed returnable? Thus, transit re-emerges in the Aegean Sea, which no longer functions as a transit space (see Dimitriadi, 2017) in the sense of onward mobility but as a transit space for those who wait to be selected or to be returned. The riots mobilized the locals – the citizens – who until recently had supported the migrant struggle but increasingly saw the acts of violence as a security threat to themselves. Citizens have also protested the policy put in place, as do the migrants. Neither is particularly successful in bringing about the desired (or least publicly declared) x 26 See http://www.lesvosnews.gr/21048/lesvos-ora-miden-taraches-ke-olokaftoma-stimoria-sto-dromo-5-700-metanastes-vinteo/; http://www.cnn.gr/news/ellada/story/45239/ moria-ti-symvainei-piso-apo-ta-syrmatoplegmata (available in Greek only). – 88 –