Syrian refugee Anas Modamani waited with his mobile phone ready at the entrance to his shelter in Berlin on September 10, 2015 – and when German Chancellor Angela Merkel emerged, he snapped a selfie. The photo quickly went viral, becoming a symbol for Merkel’s refugee policy, when she opened Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. Overnight, Modamani became one of the most recognisable refugees in Germany. “That photo changed my life,” Modamani told Al Jazeera.