The Perils Of Migration Out Of Africa

06:36

September 10, 2015

African migrants board a boat to the Greek island of Kos on early August 15, 2015 off the shore of Bodrum, southwest Turkey. Authorities on the island of Kos have been so overwhelmed that the government sent a ferry to serve as a temporary centre to issue travel documents to Syrian refugees - among some 7,000 migrants stranded on the island of about 30,000 people. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

The eyes of the world have been trained on the surge in refugees from Syria, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants entering Europe this year have been from as far south as Eritrea, Somalia, Senegal and Nigeria. They're part of a long and ever-shifting movement of people through and out of Africa, fleeing violence and poverty.

Karen Jacobsen has been researching African migration for years, and has helped construct maps that document the tangled web of routes people take as they attempt to cross into Europe. She speaks with Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti.

Read Karen Jacobsen's case study on the Eritrean migration system

Maps: Migrant Routes And Journeys

Maps created by the Fletcher School and Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, from the following sources: ICRC, Frontex, UNHCR.

Complete Route Overview

Migrant Vulnerability: High Risk Zones

Migrant Vulnerability: Violence Against Civilians

Guest

Karen Jacobsen, acting director of the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University and an associate professor of research at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

This segment aired on September 10, 2015.