From 2015 onwards, the debates and dominant narratives about the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ put forward by multiple intervening actors and policy makers (at EU, national and local levels) and in the media have been ahistorical misconceptions, as they have routinely represented the refugee situation, human suffering and border violence in the Greek region as new, unforeseen, isolated events or tragic accidents – that is, as ‘crises’ – and, thus, not consistent with existing patterns (Freek and Lindblad, 2002). These misconceptions have tended to obscure deep historical roots – the genealogy of border violence in Greece and its continuum in the present – as they see the refugee issue, border violence, suffering and border deaths in mainland Greece and on Lesvos as starting explicitly in 2015. Indeed, when I interviewed various professionals who had come from various parts of the world to settle on Lesvos, most of them told me that they had been there only since the beginning of the refugee crisis – that is, since 2015. Most of the intervening actors I interviewed were not aware of the migration, refugee and detention history of the Greek region as a whole and the island in particular. Similarly, in the academic literature, the debate on the refugee crisis is to a great extent ahistorical as it too focuses on the refugee issue in the period from 2015. However, there are some more recent works that have historicized the refugee crisis and border violence in Greece (Cabot, 2019; Iliadou, 2019a, 2021c; Karamanidou and Kasparek, 2022). Equally, debates on the ‘deterring-killing’ (see Iliadou, 2021b, 2021c) policies and practices, such as pushback operations, and the criminalization of solidarity in the region, despite their deep historical roots, have either been ignored by the various actors or misrepresented as new or random events.

These misconceptions tend to imply that before 2015 the refugee situation in the region – the detention and asylum system as well as the reception and living conditions – was good. However, Lesvos, and Greece more broadly, have a long history of forced displacement, border violence and control. People in this area have memories of forced displacements, border crossings, postcolonial violence, and trauma since the beginning of the 20th century. Due to the Greco–Turkish War of 1919–22, approximately one million Asia Minor refugees were forcibly displaced from Turkey to Greece and other neighbouring countries (Hernadez, 2016).