Last weekend, at least 67 people drowned when a wooden boat carrying about 150 people ran into trouble on rocks off the coast of Calabria, Italy. There were 20 children, including a newborn baby, among the dead. It is an appalling reminder of the risks some people are willing to take to flee desperate circumstances – often including conflict and torture – in their home countries.
This movement of people across borders is age old and governments have never been able to fully control it despite developments in border enforcement and technology. It is driven primarily by patterns of conflict and economic deprivation and will increasingly be shaped by the climate crisis. It is a relatively small issue for the west: because the majority of refugees prefer to stay close to their home country to maximise their chances of returning, three-quarters of the world’s refugees live in low- and middle-income countries and seven in 10 in countries that neighbour their country of origin.
