Articles by Emily Gowdey-Backus

Source: The New Internationalist

This is Part 3 of Hussam’s story. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Rescues from the mass crossing of the Mediterranean went largely unnoticed in the wider world until 19 April, when more than 800 migrants drowned off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized.

More than 200,000 refugees and migrants travelled to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea in 2014, more than triple the number in 2013; 30% of those were Syrian. Italy alone received 160,000 of those 200,000 refugees and migrants, at the rate of 480 each day. The Italian-operated Mare Nostrum maritime search and rescue programme, with a price tag of $10.5 million a month, was cut for budgetary reasons in October 2014. read more