In the early hours of 25 February 2020 hundreds of seaborne riot police arrived at the sleepy port of Mesta on the west side of the Greek island of Chios, on the EU-Turkey border. Their disembarkation was like an invading army, the police columns emerging in full riot gear out of specially chartered boats. There was a grotesque hint of a Star Wars scene in this otherwise forgotten corner of Europe’s war against refugees.
In the early hours of the same morning similar scenes unfolded in the neighbouring island of Lesbos. The police mission was to protect the big public works contractors that are due to start building the new refugee detention camps in Chios, Lesvos and Samos, just across from the Turkish coast.
Yet, the islanders say no to new camps and demand that the current camps be gradually evacuated towards the mainland and other European countries. So in both Chios and in Lesbos the riot police met a massive wave of civil disobedience and counter-violence, leading to night-long fighting. Next morning the government brought more riot police as reinforcements to Lesbos, this time by air. But the islanders were not deterred by the government’s ‘shock and awe’ approach. A general strike was declared, all schools were closed down, local unions and associations called on people to protest and to fight back. In Lesbos riot police units were forced to seek refuge at the local army barracks. In Chios policemen were attacked in their hotel bedrooms and their clothes and luggage thrown out of the windows. A few hours later their union demanded the riot police’s return to the mainland. Less than 48 hours after sending the units to the islands the government announced it was recalling them.
