Explained | How Europe got tough on migration Across the political spectrum in Europe, leaders, right and left, are pushing a tougher line on migrants lacking permanent legal status., 10 years after Europe’s migration crisis, the fallout reverberates in Greece and beyond In 2015, more than 1 million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe. The majority landed on the Greek island of Lesbos. The chaotic arrival of men, women and children fleeing war and poverty sparked a crisis that shook the European Union., In the aftermath of Europe’s so-called “refugee crisis” or “migrant crisis,” which began in 2015, EU member states tried and failed repeatedly to rethink and renew the union’s common policy,, The number of boats carrying migrants from North Africa across the Mediterranean is growing fast - but Europe is struggling to come to terms with this mass movement of people., Led by the governments of Sweden, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the European Commission to assess “innovative” ways to counter irregular migration., .