Refugees risk it all
Even daily tragedies at sea don’t stop Syrian refugees from risking their lives and those of their families trying to get to Europe from Turkey.
The flow of refugees and immigrants seeking to reach Europe via the Mediterranean has become a flood, and the death toll continues to rise as more vessels try and fail to reach their destinations.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has 157 member countries, said more than 2,700 migrants and refugees died or went missing in Mediterranean waters in the first eight months of this year.
Those who succeeded in making the trip number more than 430,000 so far this year — more than double the figure for all of 2014.
According to IOM estimates as of Sept. 10, more than 309,000 of the 2015 travelers (70%) sought refuge via Greece — including about 50,000 in just the first days of September. Italy was the No. 2 destination, receiving more than 121,000 people.
