Europe is facing the world’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war and it is being propelled by wars and persecution. Last autumn the EU suspended full-scale maritime rescue operations in the Mediterranean, believing that their presence was encouraging more migrants to risk the sea journey from Libya to Europe. However, people kept on coming (4% increase during the paused rescue missions). Millions of people are travelling to escape violence, poverty and conflict in their homeland. Their journeys have caused thousands of deaths. The European Commission has called for EU states to take in 40,000 migrants expected to arrive in Italy and Greece over the next two years. On Wednesday EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed that 120,000 additional asylum seekers should be distributed among EU nations, with binding quotas. Several nations are anxious and undecided about resettling programmes for nationals seeking asylum and in need of international protection. See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34193568