ANGELIKI DIMITRIADI while continuing to perform the security functions as a border. They also carry their own identity, which has impacted their approach towards migrant arrivals. The island of Lesvos for instance carries memories of displacement and forced movement, having received and sheltered the Greeks that fled Asia Minor during 1922 (the so-called Asia Minor Catastrophe). Christodoulou et al. (2016) noted that a peculiar power relationship has unfolded on the islands. On the one hand, the humanitarian aspect (search and rescue, first response and assistance) has been largely organized and maintained by the locals. The sight of arrivals could not be concealed. The islands of the Northern Aegean are not vast territories: disembarkation points are specific and often very close to villages and cities. As such, the sight of disembarking refugees was one most islanders witnessed and motivated them to assist the migrants, the NGOs and local authorities. When, in July 2016, I visited Skala Sykamias, a small coastal village and a common arrival point of vessels, the fishermen I encountered explained that they had stopped fishing in September 2015 and began assisting the coastguard with Search and Rescue. The number and frequency of arrivals was such that it was impossible for locals to remain unaffected. On the other hand, in the same space where the humanitarian response unfolded, the border regime (see Tsianos, Karakayali, 2010 for a discussion of the «European border regime») has been in full force, organizing screening, registration, selection as well as detention. The European response has been Janus faced: people must be prevented from reaching Europe at all costs, but there is a proliferation of emergency humanitarian responses. The contrast between deterrence and humanitarianism makes the islands function as a tool of governance of irregular mobility: they are both gates and guardians at the gates – a gate that is being «flooded», battered by «migrant influxes», and – as stated by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk – a «great tide». The continuous comparison of large numbers of people on the move with «flows» (a terminology we have also employed) and «tides» conjures up images of invasion that the hotspots seek to curtail and perhaps deter. In the words of Donald Tusk, «the days of irregular migrants to Europe are coming to an end»15 – a statement issued following the closure of the Western Balkan route. A week later the EU-Turkey Statement was announced, seeking to seal the maritime border. There is a long history of islands being used as places of processing (e.g. Ellis Island in the US), detention, selection and resettlement (Nauru, Manus and Christmas Island in Australia’s «border enforcement archipelago», Mountz, 2011), spaces of transit (Lampedusa, Italy; islands in the northern Aegean) but also confinement outside the framework of the law (Guantanamo, Cuba). Islands are part of the nation-state but not part of the mainland. Their geographical detachment is one of their key characteristics, enabling in many cases an «out of sight, out of mind» approach. Heyman (1998) has argued that migration presents a moral challenge for both migrants and hosts that can be resolved in different ways. It can result in mutual acceptance and integration or imbalanced x 15 http://www.balkaneu.com/tusk-thanked-countries-closed-borders-twitter/. – 82 –