The Impact of Immigration on European Politics

Although the number of boats transporting migrants from North Africa across the Mediterranean is rapidly increasing, Europe is having a difficult time adjusting to this massive influx of people. 

The majority of migrants who embark on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea now leave from Tunisia in North Africa. There, I discover both desperation and hope.

Mohammed “BB” Lain Barrie, who has traveled 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) from his native Sierra Leone, says, “I just want to be a basketball player.” He says, “I know I’d be good. I’m making it for my family. To play basketball in the States is my ultimate goal.

He talks with a smile on his face. However, a reminder of the risks he, along with tens of thousands of others, is prepared to take is only a few miles down the coast.

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The dockside of the port of La Lusa is lined with fishing nets. However, the daily catch includes the dead bodies of migrants who died when their shoddily built boats sank or capsized all too frequently.

The “corpse finder” is how Wahid Dahech is known around here. When someone discovers a body, they inform him. He informs law enforcement. He says it is his responsibility. Recently, some neighborhood boys who went swimming discovered a dead baby’s body.

However, there is no shortage of people willing to pay astronomical sums to board those boats.

Many travel to Italy. More than 72,000 people have traveled so far this year. The number of people who succeeded last year has more than doubled. Sub-Saharan Africans who are frantically trying to leave their continent make up a large portion of the surge.