More than
130,000 migrants have already arrived on European shores in 2015, coming
from countries as diverse as Syria, Nigeria and Vietnam in a desperate
effort to flee warzones, avoid genocide and give their children the best
chance to start a new life.
While
migrants risking everything on board cramped, barely seaworthy boats
bound for Italy and the Greek islands grab the headlines, a number of
alternative routes - such as the Canary Islands - have emerged,
highlighting locations that could see a surge in migrant arrivals over
the coming months.
Italy and Greece remain the most popular destinations however, with each having more than 40,000 arrivals since January.
In
fact arrivals of the small Greek holiday island of Kos have already
topped 6,000 in 2015 - arriving at a rate of 300 a day - leaving its
population of 32,000 wondering how many more people they can take.
In
a stark representation of the the sharply rising numbers of migrants
heading to Greece, there have already been 32,160 more arrivals in the
first five months of 2015 than there were in the whole of 2014. The
number heading to the Italy - usually through the island of Sicily and
the southern province of Apulia - have stayed relatively stable this
year, but have still hit 46,500 in just five months.
Another
hugely popular route into Europe is actually overland, with close to
40,000 migrants travelling through the Balkan states up into Hungary,
Slovenia and Austria over the past six months.
With
thousands of migrants having already drowned in the deceptively
appealing waters of the Mediterranean Sea this year, Europe is facing an
unprecedented obligation not just to save the lives of desperate men,
women and children, but also to work out exactly what can be done to
ensure those who survive the perilous voyage, where often the criminal
gangs trafficking them can prove as fearsome and ruthless as the sea
itself.
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