Migrant crisis in Europe

Migrants and refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa continue to attempt to reach Europe by the thousands.

On Nov. 3, more than 200 people drowned off the coast of Libya after two migrant boats wrecked. Only 31 passengers from those boats were rescued.

It is estimated that, as of press time, about 330,000 migrants have made the journey into Europe via the Mediterranean by November 2016, compared with over one million in 2015. As of press time, at least 4,200 people had died in 2016 attempting to make this crossing. 

On Nov. 25, after the European Union Parliament put on hold a vote allowing Turkey into the EU, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdog˘an, threatened to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants currently being held in refugee camps in Turkey to cross into Europe. A deal between Turkey and the EU that was agreed on in March 2016 had reduced the number of migrants allowed to cross from Turkey into Greece.