From Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLo...summary_on_the_current_immigration_crisis_in/
Why is everyone migrating in huge numbers suddenly? From the articles I read it looks like the Europe Migrant issue is a long standing one. However, recent conflicts in countries have driven people to migrate at great risk to their life.
People from African countries are sick of poverty and abuse they endure in their countries. Majority come from Eritrea, Nigeria and Libya.
People from Afghanistan and Syria make up majority of the migrant population. They are fleeing wars in their respective countries are they get more and more brutal.
These people are not just running away from horrors in their own countries but are going in hope that they can get an opportunity to make their lives better for themselves and their family.
Why is it in the news? A lot of migrants are making these journeys under extremely dangerous conditions. Migrants from Africa pay huge amounts of money to undertake these journeys - a lot of them not even reaching their boats because abusers kidnap/rape/torture them to get more money out of them. The normal places they head to are Greece and Italy.
Even if they do reach the boats, they're tightly packed with more passengers than the boats can take. Some of them are not even boats but rubber dinghies. Owing due to all of these factors, there have been a lot of incidents where these boats have sunk in the sea drowning most of the migrants.
Another group of migrants are ones that are trying to get to Germany through Hungary and Austria. At least a 1000 people tried getting on trains from Budapest which led to the standoff. A lot of these people then started walking instead of taking the trains in protest against the government. Some Hungarians walked alongside them to show solidarity. The government then sent buses to pick up the migrants and transfer them to the Austrian border.
The migrants from Syria usually take the route to Turkey and then Greece. They face similar daunting journeys and these incidents have also been in news because of a lot of people perishing on the way. This story picked up steam after the photo of Aylan Kurdi surface on the internet - a very young Syrian child who died with his mother and older brother trying to make the journey from Turkey to Greece.
Are other people doing something to help them? Numerous organisations and people across the world are helping in any way they can. Organisations like the MSF are putting out patrol boats in hopes of intercepting the rubber dinghies from Africa so that they can give people safe passage.
What are the governments doing? Since Greece is already facing economic issues, they are finding it hard to fund any official rescue/patrol operations and have asked for help by other countries.
German and Austrian officials have declared that they will allow migrants into their countries.
Why is this story tough to follow? As you can see, there are migrants from a lot of different countries coming into Europe at the same time in different countries ranging from Greece, Italy, Turkey to Hungary, Austria, Germany and UK. Different countries response to this crises spins off into another story because each country has different laws governing asylum.
Also, since these migrants are themselves from so many different countries, each of their journeys spins off into their own story.
These are complex issues and would not be justified by just a single coverage. There are news articles tackling why this is happening in each country, what can be done by home countries, what can be done by countries to which they're fleeing and coverage of the migrant's journey from their home country to their final destination. Since so many countries are in play, it can get confusing to follow each and every thread.
What's Happening Now As the story picks up more steam, more people are stepping out to help the migrants. Some days ago, people themselves would go on streets to give migrants food and water. Now police in some countries are taking initiative and stocking up on food and supplies and are helping the migrants.
