Patrick Kingsley - The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe’s Refugee Crisis

Routes into Europe

In the darkness far out to sea, Hashem al-Souki cant see his neighbours but he can hear them scream. Its partly his fault. They are two African women perhaps from Somalia, but now is not the time to ask and Hashem is spreadeagled on top of them. His limbs dig into theirs. They want him to move, fast, and so would he. But he cant several people are sprawled on top of him, and theres possibly another layer above them. Dozens are crammed into this wooden dinghy. If anyone tries to shift, a smuggler kicks them back into place. They dont want the crammed boat to overbalance, and then sink.

It is perhaps eleven at night, but Hashem cant be certain. Hes losing track of time, and of place. Earlier in the evening, on a beach at the northernmost tip of Egypt, he and his companions were herded into this little boat. Now that boat is who-knows-where, bobbing along in the pitch darkness, lurching in the waves, somewhere in the south-eastern Mediterranean. And its passengers are screaming.

Some of the screams are in Arabic, some not. There are people from across Africa here, others from across the Middle East. There are Palestinians, Sudanese and Somalians. And Syrians, like Hashem. They want to get to northern Europe: Sweden, Germany, or anywhere that offers them a better future than their collapsed homelands. For that distant hope they are risking this boat trip to the Italian coast. All being well, they should reach Italy in five or six days. But, for now, Hashem doesnt know if hell survive the night. Or if anyone will.

An hour passes. They reach a second boat, a bigger one, and then a third, bigger still. At each new vessel, the smugglers toss them over the side like bags of potatoes. Now they have a bit more space, but theyre soaked. They had to wade through the waves to get to the dinghy, and the second boat was full of water. Their clothes drenched, they shiver. And they retch. The person squeezed to his left pukes all over Hashem. Then Hashem pays the favour forward, spewing all over the person to his right. He looks up, and realises everyones at it; everyones clothes are caked in other peoples vomit. Each has paid more than $2000 to spew over fellow refugees. Its a vomiting party, Hashem thinks to himself.

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of this scene is just how ordinary it has become. The world is currently witnessing the biggest wave of mass migration since the Second World War and the most dramatic example of this phenomenon is occurring in the Mediterranean sea. In 2014 and 2015, around 1.2 million people crossed the Mediterranean in leaking boats like this one. home to 86 per cent of refugees. Now Europe is also waking up to the crisis.

Migration to Europe is by no means new. African migrants have long tried to reach Spain from Morocco, or the Canary Islands from Senegal. For years, Libya, Turkey and Egypt have been springboards for people hoping to get to Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. But never before have migrants come in such extraordinarily high numbers.