The cameras have left Lesvos, but bitterness remains

There were months in 2015 when the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos received up to 6,000 arrivals of migrants and refugees a day. The refugee crisis was the leading news item at the time and harrowing images of those landings traveled across the globe.

Today, the influx has lessened considerably - despite a recent spike - and boats don't run ashore anymore but are intercepted by Frontex at sea and their passengers dispatched forthwith to the reception and processing center, or hot spot, at Moria - a simmering cauldron of discontent due to overcrowding and squalid conditions.

"If they came out on their boats even today, we would still jump into the water to help them. There is no imagining what we've been through, the things we've seen. But we are also desperate. Not at the refugees, but at the way the crisis is being managed by the state and by Europe. We have been...