Nov. 16, 2015. Migrants arrive by a Turkish boat near the village of Skala, on the Greek island of Lesbos. The Turkish boat owner delivered about 150 people to the Greek coast and tried to escape back to Turkey; he was arrested in Turkish waters.
Sept. 18, 2015. Desperate refugees board the train toward Zagreb at Tovarnik station on the border with Serbia. As key nations tightened their borders, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers were bottled up in the Balkans, placing precarious new burdens on a region of lingering sectarian divisions that was exceptionally ill-prepared to handle the crisis.
Sept. 5, 2015. Ahmad Majid, in blue T-shirt at center, sleeps on a bus floor with his children, his brother Farid Majid, in green sweater at right, and other members of their family and dozens of other refugees, after leaving Budapest on the way to Vienna. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, fled their homes, risking their lives in dangerous boat trips, illegal border crossings and long bus and train journeys, seeking asylum in Western Europe and Scandinavia.
Oct. 22, 2015. Migrants walking past a church, escorted by Slovenian riot police to a registration camp outside Dobova, Slovenia. The small Balkan nations along the path of the human migration through Europe have seen record numbers of refugees cross their borders, and have been overwhelmed in their ability to manage the human flow.
Sept. 16, 2015. A man tries to shield his child from police beatings and tear gas at the border crossing in Horgos, Serbia. Baton-wielding Hungarian riot police unleashed tear gas and water cannons against hundreds of migrants after they broke through a razor-wire fence and tried to surge into Hungary from Serbia.
Aug. 27, 2015. Refugees wait in line for documents at a processing center in Presevo, Serbia. People in long lines stood in the blistering sun, begging guards to let them into the reception center. Refugees had to register to travel farther through Serbia. In Serbia, refugees could register to stay in the country for 72 hours, gaining the right to travel and even to stay in a hotel.
Sept. 1, 2015. Dozens of refugee families, mostly from Syria, camping underneath the Keleti train station in central Budapest.
Nov. 28, 2015. Refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Algeria and Somalia struggling for donations of water, blankets, diapers and some clothes on their 10th day encamped near the border in Idomeni, Greece. They were not allowed to cross into Macedonia; only refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were allowed to continue their journeys.
Nov. 28, 2015. Macedonian soldiers on the Greek side of the border have built a border fence that divides their town of Gevgelija, Macedonia, in the background, from Idomeni, where nearly 2,500 refugees were being barred from entering.
Aug. 30, 2015. Roujin Sheikho, at left, from Syria, carries her daughter Widad as her son Nabih, at right, walks with her and other Syrian refugees down the railway before crossing into Hungary from Horgos, Serbia.
Aug. 31, 2015. Members of the Majid family from Syria sleep with their children in their arms in a wheat field as they wait to cross the barbed wire fence at Horgos into Hungary.
Nov. 21, 2015. Refugees line up to be registered in a reception camp, in Gevgelija, so they can take a train to Belgrade, Serbia, and continue their journey through the Balkans toward Europe.
Oct. 23, 2015. Migrants walking along a dyke, escorted by Slovenian riot police, to a registration camp outside Dobova. Despite hopes that falling temperatures and treacherous seas would slow the tide of refugees, fresh fighting in Syria and growing fears of border closings drove more people to undertake the treacherous trek.
Nov. 21, 2015. A refugee family from Syria gets warm around a bonfire as others line up to be registered in a reception camp, in Gevgelija.
Oct. 1, 2015. After battling rough seas and high winds from Turkey, migrants arrive by rubber raft on a jagged shoreline of the Greek island of Lesbos. Fearing capsize or puncture, some panicked and jumped into the cold water in desperation to reach land. This boy made it, unlike hundreds of others
Nov. 1, 2015. The body of a refugee who attempted to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey, in the background, on Lesbos. Three other bodies, of a 12-year-old girl, a middle-aged man and an older man, were also found that morning.
Aug. 15, 2015. Laith Majid, an Iraqi, broke into tears of joy, holding his son and daughter after they arrived safely in Kos, Greece, on a flimsy rubber boat.
Nov. 7, 2015. A huge pile of discarded life vests, inner tubes and deflated rubber dinghies, the basic equipment that thousands of refugees use to cross the Aegean sea from Turkey, at dusk on Lesbos.
Registered Syrian refugees 5 Millions Total persons of concern 4,837,572 4 3 2 1 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Source: UNHCR.
Source: Amnesty International.
Source: Eurostat.
Source: UNHCR.
Source: Amnesty International.