\n<\/p>\n
LESBOS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Fleeing Iran with her husband and toddler, Amena Namjoyan reached a rocky beach of this eastern Greek island<\/a> along with hundreds of thousands of others. For months, their arrival overwhelmed Lesbos. Boats fell apart, fishermen dove to save people from drowning, and local grandmothers<\/a> bottle-fed newly arrived babies.<\/p>\n Namjoyan spent months in an overcrowded camp. She learned Greek. She struggled with illness and depression as her marriage collapsed. She tried to make a fresh start in Germany but eventually returned to Lesbos, the island that first embraced her. Today, she works at a restaurant, preparing Iranian dishes that locals devour, even if they struggle to pronounce the names. Her second child tells her, \u201c\u2018I\u2019m Greek.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGreece is close to my culture, and I feel good here,\u201d Namjoyan said. \u201cI am proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015,<\/a> more than 1 million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe \u2014 the majority by sea, landing in Lesbos, where the north shore is just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Turkey<\/a>. The influx of men, women and children fleeing war and poverty sparked a humanitarian crisis that shook the European Union to its core. A decade later, the fallout still reverberates on the island and beyond.<\/p>\n For many, Greece was a place of transit. They continued on to northern and western Europe. Many who applied for asylum were granted international protection; thousands became European citizens<\/a>. Countless more were rejected, languishing for years in migrant camps or living in the streets. Some returned to their home countries. Others were kicked out of the European Union.<\/p>\n For Namjoyan, Lesbos is a welcoming place \u2014 many islanders share a refugee ancestry, and it helps that she speaks their language. But migration policy in Greece, like much of Europe, has shifted toward deterrence in the decade since the crisis. Far fewer people are arriving illegally. Officials and politicians have maintained that strong borders are needed. Critics say enforcement has gone too far and violates fundamental EU rights and values.<\/p>\n \u201cMigration is now at the top of the political agenda, which it didn\u2019t use to be before 2015,\u201d said Camille Le Coz Director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe, noting changing EU alliances. \u201cWe are seeing a shift toward the right of the political spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n A humanitarian crisis turned into a political one<\/p>\n In 2015, boat after boat crowded with refugees crashed onto the doorstep of Elpiniki Laoumi, who runs a fish tavern across from a Lesbos beach. She fed them, gave them water, made meals for aid organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would look at them and think of them as your own children,” said Laoumi, whose tavern walls today are decorated with thank-you notes.<\/p>\n From 2015 to 2016, the peak of the migration crisis, more than 1 million people entered Europe through Greece alone. The immediate humanitarian crisis \u2014 to feed, shelter and care for so many people at once \u2014 grew into a long-term political one.<\/p>\n Greece was reeling from a crippling economic crisis. The influx added to anger against established political parties, fueling the rise of once-fringe populist forces.<\/p>\n EU nations fought over sharing responsibility for asylum seekers. The bloc\u2019s unity cracked as some member states flatly refused to take migrants. Anti-migration voices calling for closed borders became louder.<\/p>\n Today, illegal migration is down across Europe<\/p>\n While illegal migration to Greece has fluctuated, numbers are nowhere near 2015-16 figures, according to the International Organization for Migration. Smugglers adapted to heightened surveillance, shifting to more dangerous routes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overall, irregular EU border crossings<\/a> decreased by nearly 40% last year and continue to fall, according to EU border and coast guard agency Frontex.<\/p>\n That hasn\u2019t stopped politicians from focusing on \u2014 and sometimes fearmongering over \u2014 migration. This month, the Dutch government collapsed<\/a> after a populist far-right lawmaker<\/a> withdrew his party\u2019s ministers over migration policy.<\/p>\n In Greece, the new far-right migration minister<\/a> has threatened rejected asylum seekers with jail time<\/a>.<\/p>\n A few miles from where Namjoyan now lives, in a forest of pine and olive trees, is a new EU-funded migrant center. It’s one of the largest in Greece and can house up to 5,000 people.<\/p>\n Greek officials denied an Associated Press request to visit. Its opening is blocked, for now, by court challenges.<\/p>\n Some locals say the remote location seems deliberate \u2014 to keep migrants out of sight and out of mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t believe such massive facilities are needed here. And the location is the worst possible \u2013 deep inside a forest,\u201d said Panagiotis Christofas, mayor of Lesbos\u2019 capital, Mytilene. \u201cWe\u2019re against it, and I believe that\u2019s the prevailing sentiment in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n A focus on border security<\/p>\n For most of Europe, migration efforts focus on border security and surveillance.<\/p>\n The European Commission this year greenlighted the creation of \u201creturn\u201d hubs<\/a> \u2014 a euphemism for deportation centers \u2014 for rejected asylum seekers. Italy has sent unwanted migrants to its centers in Albania<\/a>, even as that faces legal challenges<\/a>.<\/p>\n Governments have resumed building walls and boosting surveillance<\/a> in ways unseen since the Cold War.<\/p>\n In 2015, Frontex was a small administrative office in Warsaw. Now, it’s the EU’s biggest agency, with 10,000 armed border guards, helicopters, drones and an annual budget of over 1 billion euros.<\/p>\n On other issues of migration \u2014 reception, asylum and integration, for example \u2014 EU nations are largely divided.<\/p>\n The legacy of Lesbos<\/p>\n Last year, EU nations approved a migration and asylum pact<\/a> laying out common rules for the bloc’s 27 countries on screening, asylum, detention and deportation of people trying to enter without authorization, among other things.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lesbos crisis of 2015 was, in a way, the birth certificate of the European migration and asylum policy<\/a>,\u201d Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice president and a chief pact architect, told AP.<\/p>\n He said that after years of fruitless negotiations, he’s proud of the landmark compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a system,\u201d Schinas said. \u201cEurope\u2019s gates had been crashed.”<\/p>\n The deal, endorsed by the United Nations refugee agency, takes effect next year. Critics say it made concessions to hardliners. Human rights organizations say it will increase detention and erode the right to seek asylum.<\/p>\n Some organizations also criticize the \u201cexternalization\u201d of EU border management \u2014 agreements with countries across the Mediterranean to aggressively patrol their coasts and hold migrants back in exchange for financial assistance.<\/p>\n The deals have expanded, from Turkey<\/a> to the Middle East<\/a> and across<\/a>Africa<\/a>. Human rights groups say autocratic governments are pocketing billions and often subject the displaced to appalling conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lesbos still sees some migrants arrive<\/p>\n Lesbos’ 80,000 residents look back at the 2015 crisis with mixed feelings.<\/p>\n Fisherman Stratos Valamios saved some children. Others drowned just beyond his reach, their bodies still warm as he carried them to shore.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s changed from back then to now, 10 years on? Nothing,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I feel is anger \u2014 that such things can happen, that babies can drown.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who died crossing to Lesbos are buried in two cemeteries, their graves marked as \u201cunknown.\u201d<\/p>\n Tiny shoes and empty juice boxes with faded Turkish labels can still be found on the northern coast. So can black doughnut-shaped inner tubes, given by smugglers as crude life preservers for children. At Moria<\/a>, a refugee camp destroyed by fire in 2020, children\u2019s drawings remain on gutted building walls.<\/p>\n