Migrant crisis: How Europe went from Merkel's 'We can do it' to pulling up the drawbridge

The day they appeared he could hardly believe his eyes. Small boat after small boat bearing in from the Turkish side. 'I have so many memories that are coming back to me now,' says Paris Laoumis, a hotelier on the Greek island of Lesbos. 'There were people from Syria, Afghanistan, many countries.'

This was August 2015 and Europe was witnessing the greatest movement in population since the end of the Second World War. More than a million people would arrive in the EU over the next few months driven by violence in Syria, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere.

I witnessed the arrivals on Lesbos and met Paris Laoumis as he was busy helping exhausted asylum seekers near his hotel. 'I am proud of what we did back then,' he tells me. Along with international volunteers he provided food and clothing to those arriving.

Today the beach is quiet. There are no asylum seekers. But Paris is worried. He believes another crisis is possible. With the number of arrivals rising over the summer months, his country's migration minister has warned of the risk of an 'invasion', with thousands arriving from countries such as Sudan, Egypt, Bangladesh and Yemen.

'Of course I worry. I can see the suffering of the people. They are not coming here but we see it on Crete (Greece's largest island) where people have come. So it is possible that with the wars more people will come here.'

In 2015 I followed as the asylum seekers boarded ferries, trudged in the heat along railway lines, through cornfields, down country lanes and along highways, making their way up through the Balkans and onwards to Germany and Scandinavia.

The numbers entering Germany jumped from 76,000 in July to 170,000 the following month. On the last day of August, Angela Merkel declared 'wir schaffen das' - we can do it - interpreted by many as extending open arms to the asylum seekers.

'Germany is a strong country,' she said. 'The motive with which we approach these things must be: we have achieved so much – we can do it! We can do it, and where something stands in our way, it has to be overcome, it has to be worked on.'

But the high emotions of that summer, when crowds welcomed asylum seekers along the roads north, seem to belong to a very different time. That optimistic proclamation soon became a political liability for Mrs. Merkel. Political opponents and some European leaders felt the words acted as a magnet for asylum seekers to the EU. Within a fortnight the Chancellor was forced to impose controls on Germany's borders due to the influx of asylum seekers.

A decade on, concerns over migration have become a major political issue in many European countries. The causes are complex and vary from country to country, but concerns around security, struggling economies, and disillusionment with governing parties have all had a major role in shaping attitudes towards those who arrive fleeing war, hunger, and economic desperation.

Since 2015, when the UNHCR reports that over a million people entered Europe on asylum routes, there has been a dramatic drop in arrivals, yet the average number of people entering Europe has still been around 200,000 people each year. As of this year, a total of 96,200 asylum seekers have been recorded arriving.

In Hungary, the far-right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken one of the toughest approaches to migration. The Hungarian approach has been vindicated by the restrictive measures now being put forward in the UK and other nations, where family reunification for migrants has been increasingly restricted.

For many former host countries like Sweden, the atmosphere has turned sour with rising right-wing rhetoric and actions aimed at limiting asylum seekers’ rights and residency options. The emotional climate has shifted significantly since those poignant welcomes in 2015, revealing fears of organized crime intertwined with migration and increasing far-right influence in political spheres.

Back on Lesbos, the graves of asylum seekers, many marked 'Unknown', serve as a haunting reminder of the risks they take in pursuit of a better life. The numbers of asylum seekers trying to reach Europe may ebb and flow, but the global crises prompting migration show no signs of abating. For policymakers across Europe, navigating these complex issues remains a formidable and pressing challenge.