移民逃离战区 在欧洲寻求庇护

The drowning of 400 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the deadliest migrant tragedies over the last decade.

The UNHCR estimates that more than three-thousand migrants died in the Mediterranean last year. That figure itself is up from six-hundred in 2013.

Mohammed and Elijah are twins. The brothers come from Aleppo in northern Syria. They are among the rising number of people making the perilous crossing to Italy fleeing conflicts in Africa and the Middle-East.

"These smugglers took a lot of money from us, and locked us in a small room for quite some time. We were offered cheese and bread. We were tortured and insulted along the journey," said Syrian refugee Elijah.

But it was during their journey that they faced the real danger.

Mohammed said, "the journey was arduous, around fifteen hours in, we had an engine failure. We were afraid, we would die any minute and the boat could capsize. We were worried about the safety of the children on board."

But for the brothers, the dangers of the journey far outweighed the need to flee from war-torn Syria.

Reports predict that the ongoing conflict in the region will prompt thousands to attempt the dangerous sea journey to Europe from northern Africa.

"We would've died in the middle-east. But, we've decided to gamble our lives this time, to start a new life here," said
Mohammed.

The war in Syria is pushing the numbers of migrants heading to Europe to record highs.

As the major entry point into Europe, Italy says it needs the EU to share more of the burden.

But questions remian as to what the EU can actually do on the ground to stem the tide of migrant arriving by sea.