Inside Europe's migrant crisis

Record numbers of migrants are drowning while trying to flee the Mideast and Africa for Europe. Why do they keep coming?

Migrant boat
(Image credit: REUTERS/Hani Amara)

How many people are dying?

Since January, an estimated 1,750 migrants have drowned trying to reach Europe via boat — a greater death toll than the Titanic's. Hoping to escape the war, poverty, and violence of their own countries in Africa and the Middle East, these desperate refugees pay up to $2,000 each for a spot on one of the overloaded, rickety fishing vessels or rubber dinghies crossing the Mediterranean every day. Last year, a staggering 215,000 migrants successfully reached Europe, most landing in Italy. Italy sent only 5,000 home; the rest disappeared into the Continent, with many headed to Northern Europe in search of work and better lives. But often these voyages end in a tragedy — such as the April 19 disaster, in which about 900 refugees drowned en route from Libya. With another million migrants reportedly waiting in Libya to cross the dangerous seas, the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that European leaders must do something to stem the crisis — or they "risk turning the Mediterranean into a vast cemetery."

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