Escape From Syria

PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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The number of migrants fleeing into Europe this year has already reached 235,000, topping the total number of migrants for all of last year, 219,000. The International Organization for Migration estimated that number will grow to at least a quarter of a million by the end of August.

Nearly half of these refugees are Syrians fleeing war at home, escaping into Turkey, and paying smugglers to help them make a dangerous crossing to the Greek island of Kos in tiny inflatable rafts. Once on European soil, they make their way north any way they can, on foot or by rail, with help or on their own, passing through Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary bound for Austria, Germany, France, England, and other Western European countries. The influx of migrants is placing huge burdens on all nations along the route, especially Greece, which has seen a 750-percent increase in arrivals over the same period as last year.

This image is a view taken from Aleppo’s Syrian-regime-controlled neighborhood of Karm al-Jabal, showing heavily damaged buildings.

A Syrian emergency responder runs toward the site of airstrikes following shelling by Syrian government forces on a marketplace in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, on August 16, 2015.

Syrian emergency personnel gather dead bodies wrapped in shrouds following airstrikes by Syrian government forces.

An injured Syrian boy waits to receive treatment at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, following airstrikes by Syrian government forces on August 16, 2015.

More than 600,000 Syrians have fled south into Jordan since the start of the war. In this July 29, 2015, photo, a Syrian refugee boy plays with a tire at the Zaatari refugee camp near Mafraq, Jordan.

Syrian refugee Kutana al-Hamadi, 24, tends to her son Almunzir, 7 months, covered with a mosquito net, at their tent in an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, on July 21, 2015.

Anas, last name not given, age 19, a Sunni Arab from Damascus, Syria, shows his wounds from sniper fire as he waits near Basmane train station in the coastal city of Izmir, Turkey, on August 15, 2015.

Syrian migrants, planning to cross by boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, try on life jackets offered for sale outside a tourist shop in the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, on August 13, 2015.

Migrant Youssef Ahmed Zaid, 5, from Afghanistan, smiles at the bus station where his family has sought shelter until they cross into Greece, in the coastal town of Bodrum, Turkey, on August 16, 2015.

Migrants wait on a beach to board a small boat to sail to the Greek island of Kos, in Bodrum, Turkey, on August 17, 2015.

Migrants run to board their dinghy to try to cross to the nearby Greek island of Kos, from Bodrum, Turkey, on August 14, 2015.

Migrants sailing from the city of Izmir in Turkey to the Greek island of Kos pose for a selfie on the boat in this picture taken August 12, 2015.

A raft overcrowded with Syrian refugees approaches a beach on the Greek island of Kos after crossing a part of the Aegean sea from Turkey to Greece on August 13, 2015.

Syrian migrants try to make it to shore in their sinking dinghy as they arrive on the Greek island of Kos, on August 17, 2015.

Migrants arrive on the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, on August 17, 2015, after crossing from Turkey.

A Syrian migrant holds her children as they arrive on an overcrowded raft on a beach near the port on the Greek island of Kos on August 15, 2015.

A Syrian refugee sends text messages to relatives moments after arriving at a beach on the Greek island of Kos on August 12, 2015.

A young Syrian child looks at the camera as migrants arrive on a beach on the Greek island of Kos on August 13, 2015.

Syrian refugees land on a beach on the Greek island of Kos.

Migrants and refugees are pushed as riot police try to maintain an orderly line during a registration procedure at the national stadium of the Greek island of Kos on August 12, 2015.

A migrant from Pakistan sits in his tent as others make their way through the garden of a deserted hotel on the Greek island of Kos on August 13, 2015.

Two Syrian refugees sit at the dock of the port of Kos as the passenger ship Eleftherios Venizelos backs into the quay on August 14, 2015.

A young migrant sleeps on the ground with others in a park on Kos island in Greece on August 10, 2015.

A man carries his child as he walks on railway tracks towards the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, from where they hope to catch a train heading to the border with Serbia on August 13, 2015.

Migrants rush to board a train at Gevgelija train station in Macedonia, close to the border with Greece, on August 15, 2015.

An injured migrant boy is helped after he received an electric shock while trying to climb a utility pole at Gevgelija train station in Macedonia, close to the border with Greece, on August 14, 2015.

Migrants wave as their train leaves Gevgelija station in Macedonia, close to the border with Greece, on August 15, 2015.

Syrian migrants travel north on a crowded train near Skopje in Macedonia.

Hungarian soldiers build a fence on the Hungarian-Serbian border near Asotthalom, Hungary, on August 10, 2015, as the flow of migrants continues to hit Hungary’s southern borders.

Syrian refugees walk through a field near the village of Idomeni at the Greek-Macedonian border on July 14, 2015.

A family of migrants from Syria who have just crossed the border from Serbia into Hungary sit in the shade as they wait for a bus organized by the police to take to them to the nearby Roszke transit center.

Migrants from Syria trek through a field while on their way to cross the Serbian-Hungarian border in Horgos, Serbia.

In Traiskirchen, Austria, a child plays next to tents at the asylum processing center on July 31, 2015.

A refugee family who arrived in Germany by crossing the nearby Austrian border goes to a rest area placed in a sports hall in Deggendorf, Germany.