According to UN data, in 2014, 300,000 people crossed the borders irregularly to reach Europe. Of that total, at least 218,000 did so for the Mediterranean route.
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Syrian civil war. Since 2011 it has been torturing the people of this country in Western Asia.
This country, with such a diverse ethnic and religious variety, is always connected to many other countries and nations around, Greece, Armenia, Turkey, Kurdistan… We find this relation in their cuisine, art, and popular culture for instance.
But due to their “recent” war, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are migrating to Europe, looking for refuge from this living hell.
But these people, unfortunately, aren’t alone. The promise of a new life, away from war and hunger, and the ability to escape death, are the main reasons that drive people from the less developed or not politically stable countries to leave, trying to reach Europe which according to their fantasies represents opportunity. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
According to UN data, in 2014, 300,000 people crossed the borders irregularly to reach Europe. Of that total, at least 218,000 did so for the Mediterranean route.
“In Libya, all speak of going to Europe,” said Fisaha Talese, a young 30-year-old survivor of the tragedy of Lampedusa in 2013.
“We left the village thinking that in Europe they give you money when you need it, 100, 200 euros, without effort. That everyone here is rich. This is a permanent party to enjoy with friends. No African leaves another alone. We help as we can, which is almost never a lot. They spoke of Madrid as the site of the real opportunities, “said Bertin Youmssi, a Cameroonian who crossed the Strait of Gibraltar swimming to reach Spain.
The reasons that pushed Youmssi to leave their country are a constant that motivates most of his countrymen. “In Cameroon, there are no medicines,” says Youmssi “If you are bitten by a mosquito you get sick with malaria or typhoid fever, you die. Drugstores and people in the street will sell fake pills. There is also no possibility of studying. Many children have not been and will never go to school. Because public costs are about 100 euros per month, two full salaries in a conventional family. “
While in Syria and Libya people are fleeing the civil war that began in 2011, after the so-called “Arab Spring”, the African people are escaping hunger, drought, and Islamic terrorist militias.
Not everything is what the media shows, that’s for sure, deforestation, species getting extinct, the loss of the biodiversity, for instance, we have already lost 70% of the plants diversity, due to the farming of the same type of plants all around the world taking the place of other. Pollution is one of the most obvious problems nowadays, have you ever seen dirty just on the coast of the beach where you usually swim? Do you think dirt in the water can only be solid? I can tell you it is not, close to 60% of dirt is dissolved in the water, so yes, you are getting a bath continuously dirty.
Victor Guerrero
