Another deadly shipwreck of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, this time off the coast of Greece, is drawing new scrutiny of immigrants' motives to make the dangerous trip to a Europe still wracked by unemployment.
The latest tragedy took place on the Greek island of Lefkada, where a boat overturned in calm weather, killing 12 migrants, who the Associated Press reports are believed to be Syrian. Another 15 migrants survived the incident.
The boat was thought to be headed to Italy, the destination of two ships carrying migrants that capsized early last month near the island of Lampedusa. More than 300 migrants, mostly Eritreans, died in a wreck on Oct. 3. A boat carrying Syrian refugees capsized just a week later, killing more than 30 people.
The scale of the latest accidents have once again reignited the European debate about immigration, leaving Europeans puzzled as to why thousands of people every year choose to face treacherous sea journeys in makeshift boats.
"This cannot be easily understood from a Western perspective," says Franck Düvell, a senior immigration researcher at Oxford University, who points out that those who emigrate are not only fleeing war zones or trying to improve their lives. In many cases, for instance, an individual is not really given the choice of whether to emigrate or not.
Read bmore: Do migrants to Europe know what they're getting into? - CSMonitor.com
The latest tragedy took place on the Greek island of Lefkada, where a boat overturned in calm weather, killing 12 migrants, who the Associated Press reports are believed to be Syrian. Another 15 migrants survived the incident.
The boat was thought to be headed to Italy, the destination of two ships carrying migrants that capsized early last month near the island of Lampedusa. More than 300 migrants, mostly Eritreans, died in a wreck on Oct. 3. A boat carrying Syrian refugees capsized just a week later, killing more than 30 people.
The scale of the latest accidents have once again reignited the European debate about immigration, leaving Europeans puzzled as to why thousands of people every year choose to face treacherous sea journeys in makeshift boats.
"This cannot be easily understood from a Western perspective," says Franck Düvell, a senior immigration researcher at Oxford University, who points out that those who emigrate are not only fleeing war zones or trying to improve their lives. In many cases, for instance, an individual is not really given the choice of whether to emigrate or not.
Read bmore: Do migrants to Europe know what they're getting into? - CSMonitor.com
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