Photo Essay: The Greek island of Lesbos 10 years after the migration crisis

LESBOS, Greece (AP) — LESBOS, Greece (AP) Fleeing Iran with her husband and toddler, Amena Namjoyan reached a rocky beach of this eastern Greek island 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 bottle-fed newly arrived babies.

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, “‘I’m Greek.’”

“Greece is close to my culture, and I feel good here,” Namjoyan said. “I am proud of myself.”

In 2015, more than 1 million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe — the majority by sea, landing in Lesbos, where the north shore is just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Turkey. 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.

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. 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.

For Namjoyan, Lesbos is a welcoming place — 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.

“Migration is now at the top of the political agenda, which it didn’t use to be before 2015,” said Camille Le Coz Director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe, noting changing EU alliances. “We are seeing a shift toward the right of the political spectrum.”

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.

“You would look at them and think of them as your own children,” said Laoumi, whose tavern walls today are decorated with thank-you notes.

From 2015 to 2016, the peak of the migration crisis, more than 1 million people entered Europe through Greece alone. The immediate humanitarian crisis — to feed, shelter and care for so many people at once — grew into a long-term political one.

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.

EU nations fought over sharing responsibility for asylum seekers. The bloc’s unity cracked as some member states flatly refused to take migrants. Anti-migration voices calling for closed borders became louder.

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.

Overall, irregular EU border crossings decreased by nearly 40% last year and continue to fall, according to EU border and coast guard agency Frontex.

That hasn’t stopped politicians from focusing on — and sometimes fearmongering over — migration. This month, the Dutch government collapsed after a populist far-right lawmaker withdrew his party’s ministers over migration policy.

In Greece, the new far-right migration minister has threatened rejected asylum seekers with jail time.

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.

Greek officials denied an Associated Press request to visit. Its opening is blocked, for now, by court challenges.

Some locals say the remote location seems deliberate — to keep migrants out of sight and out of mind.

“We don’t believe such massive facilities are needed here. And the location is the worst possible – deep inside a forest,” said Panagiotis Christofas, mayor of Lesbos’ capital, Mytilene. “We’re against it, and I believe that’s the prevailing sentiment in our community.”

Last year, EU nations approved a migration and asylum pact 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.

“The Lesbos crisis of 2015 was, in a way, the birth certificate of the European migration and asylum policy,” Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice president and a chief pact architect, told AP.

He said that after years of fruitless negotiations, he’s proud of the landmark compromise.

“We didn’t have a system,” Schinas said. “Europe’s gates had been crashed.”

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.

Some organizations also criticize the “externalization” of EU border management — agreements with countries across the Mediterranean to aggressively patrol their coasts and hold migrants back in exchange for financial assistance.

The deals have expanded, from Turkey to the Middle East and acrossAfrica. Human rights groups say autocratic governments are pocketing billions and often subject the displaced to appalling conditions.

Lesbos’ 80,000 residents look back at the 2015 crisis with mixed feelings.

Fisherman Stratos Valamios saved some children. Others drowned just beyond his reach, their bodies still warm as he carried them to shore.

“What’s changed from back then to now, 10 years on? Nothing,” he said. “What I feel is anger — that such things can happen, that babies can drown.”

Those who died crossing to Lesbos are buried in two cemeteries, their graves marked as “unknown.”

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 refugee camp destroyed by fire in 2020, children’s drawings remain on gutted building walls.

Migrants still arrive, and sometimes die, on these shores. Lesbos began to adapt to a quieter, more measured flow of newcomers.

Efi Latsoudi, who runs a network helping migrants learn Greek and find jobs, hopes Lesbos’ tradition of helping outsiders in need will outlast national policies.

“The way things are developing, it’s not friendly for newcomers to integrate into Greek society,” Latsoudi said. “We need to do something. ... I believe there is hope.”

This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.

Text from AP news story, 10 years after Europe’s migration crisis, the fallout reverberates in Greece and beyond, by Derek Gatopoulos, Lefteris Pitarakis and Renata Brito.

Part of the Kara Tepe refugee and migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, is seen on May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Refugees walk next to a fence with razor wire outside the Kara Tepe refugee and migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

FILE - A volunteer holds up a baby as others help migrants and refugees disembark from a dinghy after their arrival from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios, File)

FILE - Migrants and refugees arrive on a dinghy after crossing from Turkey to Lesbos island, Greece, Sept. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - Migrants, whose boat stalled while crossing from Turkey to Greece, swim to the island of Lesbos, Greece, on Sept. 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - Refugees and migrants carrying children and belongings flee a fire burning at the Moria camp on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - Afghan migrants arrive on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on a inflatable dinghy, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

Graves at a cemetery for refugees and migrants who lost their lives while crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

An aerial view of a refugee and migrant cemetery with graves of the people who lost their life in the Aegean Sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

George Pig, a figure toy from Peppa Pig cartoon, is seen in Skala Sykamias shores, a small village on Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

An abandoned dinghy used by refugees and migrants while crossing from Turkey to Greece is seen on cape Korakas, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Abandoned clothing used by refugees and migrants while crossing from Turkey to Greece are seen on cape Korakas, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A cross hangs on a Greek coast guard vessel during a patrol in the Aegean Sea between the Greek island of Lesbos and Turkey, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Abandoned dinghies, life vests and life jackets, used by refugees and migrants while crossing from Turkey to Greece, lie on the shore of Cape Korakas on May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Fisherman Stratos Valamios untangles the nets at the village of Skala Sikamias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Flowers bloom along the shore of Skala Sikamias, where thousands of refugees arrived by dinghies from Turkey during the height of the migrant crisis a decade ago, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A mermaid mosaic by artist Yioula Koutsoubou and Humade Crafts Workshop is seen on the wall of Skala Sikamias village, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Colorful handprints are seen on the wall of a small structure in the remains of the former Moria refugee camp, which was destroyed by a massive fire in September 2020, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Messages scrawled on the wall of a building in the remains of the former Moria refugee camp, which was destroyed by a massive fire on 2020, are seen on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The remains of the former Moria refugee camp, which was destroyed by a massive fire in Sept. 2020 after years of overcrowding and poor conditions, are seen on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The remains of the former Moria refugee camp, which was destroyed by a massive fire in 2020, are seen on the island of Lesbos, Greece, on May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A wrecked vessel that was carrying migrants from Turkey in 2015 lies on the shore at Skala Sikamias, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

SAN FRANCISCO DE YARE, Venezuela (AP) — As Diógenes Angulo was freed Saturday from a Venezuelan prison after a year and five months, he, his mother and his aunt trembled and struggled for words. Nearby, at least a dozen other families hoped for similar reunions.

Angulo’s release came on the third day that families had gathered outside prisons in the capital, Caracas, and other communities hoping to see loved ones walk out after Venezuela's government pledged to free what it described as a significant number of prisoners. Members of Venezuela’s political opposition, activists, journalists and soldiers were among the detainees that families hoped would be released.

Angulo was detained two days before the 2024 presidential election after he posted a video of an opposition demonstration in Barinas, the home state of the late President Hugo Chávez. He was 17 at the time.

“Thank God, I’m going to enjoy my family again,” he told The Associated Press, adding that others still detained “are well” and have high hopes of being released soon. His faith, he said, gave him the strength to keep going during his detention.

Minutes after he was freed, the now 19-year-old learned former President Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. forces Jan. 3 in a nighttime raid in Caracas.

Venezuela's government on Thursday pledged to free a significant number of prisoners in what it described as a gesture to “seek peace.” Officials have not identified or given a number of prisoners being considered for release, leaving rights groups scouring for hints of information and families to watch the hours tick by with no word.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the release of people detained for political reasons came at Washington’s request.

"Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners," Trump wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform. “Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”

Trump added that should prisoners forget, “it will not be good for them.”

As of Saturday night, only 16 people imprisoned for political reasons had been released, according to Foro Penal, a Venezuelan advocacy group for prisoners. Eight hundred and four remained imprisoned, the group said.

A brother of human rights attorney Rocío San Miguel, one of the first to be released and who immediately relocated to Spain, said in a statement that her release “is not full freedom, but rather a precautionary measure substituting deprivation of liberty.” The conditions of her release ban her from speaking to the media.

“This situation does not constitute exile, nor a waiver of her rights, but is part of the humanitarian and diplomatic agreements reached to facilitate her release,” José Manuel San Miguel said of his sister's move to Spain.

Among the prominent members of the country’s political opposition who were detained after the 2024 presidential elections and remain in prison are former lawmaker Freddy Superlano and Perkins Rocha, lawyer for opposition leader María Corina Machado. Juan Pablo Guanipa, a former governor and one of Machado's closest allies, and Rafael Tudares, the son-in-law of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González, also remain imprisoned.

One week after the U.S. military intervention in Caracas, Venezuelans aligned with the government marched in several cities across the country demanding the return of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. The pair were captured and transferred to the U.S., where they face charges including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism. Both pleaded not guilty.

In Caracas, many demonstrators waved Venezuelan flags and chanted, “Maduro, keep on going, the people are rising.”

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez, speaking at a public social-sector event in Caracas, again condemned the U.S. military action on Saturday.

“There is a government, that of President Nicolás Maduro, and I have the responsibility to take charge while his kidnapping lasts ... We will not stop condemning the criminal aggression,” she said, referring to Maduro’s ousting.

After the shocking military action that overthrew Maduro, Trump stated the U.S. would “run” the South American country and demanded access to oil resources, which he promised to use “to benefit the people” of both nations.

“I love the Venezuelan people and I am already making Venezuela prosperous and safe again,” Trump said in his Saturday post.

The U.S. and Venezuelan governments on Friday announced they are evaluating the restoration of diplomatic relations, broken since 2019, and the reopening of their respective diplomatic missions. A U.S. delegation visited Venezuela for several hours Friday.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil responded to Pope Leo XIV's statement Friday calling for maintaining peace and “respecting the will of the Venezuelan people.”

“With respect for the Holy Father and his spiritual authority, Venezuela reaffirms that it is a country that builds, works, and defends its sovereignty with peace and dignity,” Gil said in a social media post, inviting the pontiff “to get to know this reality more closely.”

Relatives and friends of political prisoners hold candles calling for their loved ones to be set free outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 after the government announced prisoners would be released. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Mariana Gonzalez, the daughter of opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, whose husband is detained, waits outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Relatives and friends of political prisoners hold banners calling for their loved ones to be set free outside El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 after the government announced prisoners would be released.(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Police patrol near El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Narwin Gil cries as she waits for news of her detained sister, Marylyn Gil, outside El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Police patrol near El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A relative embraces Diogenes Angulo after his release from prison in San Francisco de Yare, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. Angulo had been detained two days before the 2024 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)