Lesvos

Lesvos

Lesvos has been a signifier of irregular migration and migrant solidarity in Europe since 2015. Close to a million people sought refuge on journeys through the island that summer. It has since hosted numerous activist initiatives, local, national, and international. These initiatives brought thousands of volunteers, humanitarians, solidarians, and professionals to the island. Lesvos has also become the site of fierce border policing by the Greek coastguard, FRONTEX, and for a time, NATO.

These developments have had major implications for residents, who have both embraced and rejected solidarity activism. Over the last 10 years, reception and detention facilities on the island have taken many forms. The Moria hotspot and the sprawling informal tent city around it burnt to the ground in 2020. Since then, a new RIC facility and later a megastructure, the Closed Controlled Access Centre in Vastria, opened. The latter opened only following bitter and violent resistance by residents on all sides.

Lesvos has seen the most significant forms of activism over the past decade. These ranged from violent protests to clashes with police, state authorities and between activist groups. Migrant rights activists have for a long time provided varied forms of support, This included search and rescue at sea, first response on land, accommodation, legal support, and various services inside and outside of reception and detention centres. Anti-migrant activists have also been vocal, and at times violent, in their condemnation of both migrant arrivals and state policy. They have also criticised and attacked the work of pro-migrant activists. Illustrative of the clash between these groups of activists are the legal cases involving solidarity volunteers and attackers of pro-migrant protesters, which have recently concluded. The violence that Lesvos has seen on this front contrasts sharply with a number of other locations, like Samos.