If you want to see what Rishi Sunak’s Tories hope to achieve with their “stop the boats” policy – and the brutal reality that underlies it – look to Greece. The country’s rightwing prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is currently riding high, having surprised pundits with the scale of his victory over the left in Sunday’s general election. Mitsotakis has convinced many voters that he is returning Greece to stability after the turbulence of the 2010s – and part of the pitch is his claim to have all but ended refugee boat crossings from Turkey.
“We proved that the sea has borders, and those borders can and must be guarded,” Mitsotakis declared at a campaign event on 12 May, at which he claimed his government had reduced “irregular” arrivals by 90%. The choice of location was significant: Mitsotakis was speaking amid the ruins of Moria, the chaotic, filthy refugee camp that sprang up on the Aegean island of Lesbos during Europe’s refugee crisis, and which burned down in 2020. Today, with the government building a new network of “closed” camps to house those who do still arrive, it appears order has been restored.
