From the Twilight Zone to the Limelight: Shifting Terrains of Asylum and Rights in Greece

In 2008 I conducted an interview with a refugee advocate from the European North who had recently begun a project on Lesvos, the Greek Aegean island that, since the early 2000s, had become a key site of crossing for asylum seekers and migrants entering Europe. The advocate explained that it was “obvious” to anyone working on asylum in Europe that Greece was “the place” to do a successful advocacy project. “Everyone knew terrible things were happening in Greece,” he explained, “but no one was talking about it.” We went on to discuss the detention and policing situation in Lesvos: the