History repeating itself

February 2016: Four platoons of riot police are dispatched to Kos from Athens. Dozens of residents on the eastern Aegean island block the road leading to the village of Pyli with rocks and fires, as they oppose the construction of a migrant identification and reception center in the area. They clash with police, who use tear gas to disperse the protesters. "The refugees will only spend 72 hours in the camp so they can be processed. I don't understand what all the tension is about," says then alternate defense minister Dimitris Vitsas of the leftist SYRIZA party, brushing off the reactions.

February 2020: The center-right New Democracy party decides to expropriate land on the five Aegean islands hosting migrant camps to build new closed pre-departure facilities. Riot police are dispatched from Athens. Hundreds of local residents wait for them at Lesvos' main port of Mytilene....