Refugee Crisis Over? Nope, Far From It

One month after the body of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach—and a week after the European Union agreed to secure its borders—the migrant crisis has largely fallen off the front pages and reporters are going home. But the human tide keeps rolling northward and westward, and a politician in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party tells Reuters that 1.5 million refugees could arrive in their country this year even though many federal states "are at their limit." In other words, this may only get worse: "One thing is clear, the movement is not going to die down," said Babar Baloch, the UN refugee agency's representative in the Balkans. One thing is clear, the movement is not going to die down,"

While over a half million people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, more than double the figure for all of 2014, that is only a fraction of the people who are on the move. Some 4 million have fled Syria after more than four years of civil war, and 8 million have been displaced inside the country. And it's not just Syrians. It's Iraqis and Iranians, Afghans and Eritreans. The EU acknowledged the scale of the problem last week, even after it approved a plan to toughen border controls and provide at least $1.1 billion to help Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan care for refugees living in their countries. The first new border measures won't take effect until November, and a proposal for strengthening the EU border agency is due in December. Click for more on the refugee crisis. (More refugees stories.)