Headlining the news lately has been the plight of desperate refugees reaching the shores of Europe, trekking across its borders by the thousands. It is estimated that one in four refugees today is Syrian, with a staggering four million outside their country and a further seven million internally displaced within it; around half of the total population.
Chilling and horrific images of washed up dead bodies of Syrian children went viral across mainstream and social media, promoting a deluge of sympathy and public outcry at the indifference to their suffering, bringing the Syrian conflict to the forefront of global attention once again. But as politicians bicker and argue about what to do with the biggest migration crisis since world two, the steady flow of Syrians braving the odds to reach sanctuary continues unabated, in what is now becoming the great Syrian exodus.
The country is being emptied as Syrians abandon their nation in droves in what is probably the biggest mass migration the nation has seen in its thousands of years of history; an exodus to the “Promised Land,” fortress Europe. Along the way they will brave temperamental cruel seas which have drowned thousands before them, unscrupulous people smugglers and armed gangs who rob them along the perilous journey by sea and by foot across Europe’s Eastern and southern Balkan states.
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