It is estimated that in 2015, more than a million people crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in search of safety and a better life. 3,770 are known to have died trying to make this journey during the same period. This so-called “migration crisis” is the largest humanitarian disaster to face Europe since the end of World War II.
That’s why we’ve been working to examine the conditions underpinning this recent migration across, and loss of life in, the Mediterranean.
Our first research brief, based on interviews with 600 people, including 500 refugees, shines a light on the reasons why so many risk everything on the dangerous sea crossing. It also offers an insight into why the EU response has been so ineffective.
One of the main problems with the current approach to this crisis is the assumption that refugees and migrants are drawn towards particular countries because they offer employment, welfare, education, or housing. This ignores the fact that in 2015 over 90 percent of those arriving by sea in Greece came from the world’s top-ten refugee producing countries, 56 percent from Syria. The “migration crisis” is in fact a crisis of refugee protection.
Of course those who have lost everything want to live somewhere they can rebuild their lives. But the assumption that people are drawn to particular countries presupposes that people know and understand the nuances of asylum policy and practice across a wide range of countries before arriving in the EU.
