The death of 71 migrants in a truck in Austria last week and Wednesday’s horrifying photos of a drowned Syrian child on a beach in Turkey have shone a light on the plight of migrants fleeing from war, violence and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and elsewhere, as well as Europe’s total inability to coherently address the crisis.
In the latest Global Dispatches podcast, host Mark Goldberg speaks with World Politics Review columnist Ellen Laipson about the migrant crisis, the European Union’s infighting over how to handle it and why Syrians are not trying to seek refuge in Gulf countries.
For more on migration, read Laipson’s column this week on the Gulf states inaction; Maria Savel’s piece from July 13 on Hungary skirting EU’s migration rules; and Michael Kagan’s June feature on the Middle East’s refugee crisis.