Greek Island Shows Europe How to Stop Illegal Migration
30th June 2025
The Greek island of Lesbos has all but stopped illegal migrant landings, thanks to Greece’s hardline policy of maritime “pushbacks”—a strategy condemned by activists but backed by locals who say it saved their island.
Once the epicentre of Europe’s migrant crisis, Lesbos saw more than 3,000 people arriving daily at the peak in 2015. Now, the total for 2025 stands at just 1,700. British newspaper The Sun reports that not a single boat landed last week, despite calm seas across the Mytilini Strait.
Locals credit the turnaround to a policy introduced by the centre-right New Democracy government in 2019: intercepting migrant boats at sea and returning them to Turkish waters, now designated a “safe third country.” The strategy has seen a dramatic fall in both arrivals and deaths—more than 75% fewer fatalities compared to 2015.