"Introduction "Refugee crisis," "migrant crisis". These are the terms by which we have been informed ---- by those holding the power of discourse ---- about the situation of people without capital, fleeing conflicts, wars and degradation. These are the terms by which the numbers game is played and the idea that "Europe cannot cope" is installed in the public mind. Eventually, these are the terms through which the concept of "us" and "them" is maintained and strengthened. When I first read this media terminology and heard the media language being used in addressing the arrival of refugees and migrants in Europe, the questions I wanted to ask were: Who defines it as a "crisis"? Why is it a "crisis"? What''s the nature of the "crisis"?In the unequal world in which we live, where the global North defines and writes history on behalf of the South, our knowledge of the world is disseminated and controlled via the powerful institutions of the ruling elites of the North, and our understanding of world events has often been shaped and guided by these institutions. Contrary to the mainstream perspective that looks at the arrival of refugees and migrants in terms of security and migration management, this book puts forward an alternative approach that places people at the centre of the picture. From the eyes of the refugees and migrants, it tells the true story of the people who fled persecution, conflict and abject poverty, risking their lives to cross the sea, only to find themselves trapped in a system that is not designed to offer them protection but often to profit from them and keep them marginalised.More than 5,000 migrants lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean and Aegean seas in 2016 ? they were drowned, suffocated or crushed during the crossing.

More than 25,000 migrants have died in their attempt to reach or stay in Europe since 2000. And as 2017 began, we continue to see hundreds losing their lives at sea on their journey to Europe. For those who have made the journey across the sea and come into Europe, their next phase of misery has just begun. You see it in the asylum reception system across the frontline EU states, due to the wholescale outsourcing and privatisation of asylum reception facilities (See chapter 2, 3). You see it in the "hotspot system" imposed by the European Commission that only works as a measure to reject the most and protect the least (See chapter 1). You see asylum--seeking migrants facing icy temperatures without shelters on the island of Lesbos as they were trapped in limbo, as a direct result of the EU--Turkey deal. You see migrants having nowhere to turn and sleeping rough in the streets, in the middle of "civilised" Western Europe (See chapter 6). With powerful institutions in place, it has always been difficult to challenge the mainstream perception of migration and correct their narratives about refugees and migrants ? and increasingly so since the financial crisis.

Far--right parties and groups have grown steadily, taking advantage of economic bad times. In the past decade, EU''s austerity policies have contributed to growing discontent, a great deal of it mis--directed against the "outsiders", i.e., refugees and migrants. While Donald Trump''s rise to power and his regressive anti--immigrant, anti--refugee policies have provoked global outrage, policies identical to his have already been propagated, debated, and practiced across Europe. We''ve witnessed the same kind of state violence in the way the EU countries deal with refugees and migrants. Britain has always failed to fulfil its international obligations to receive refugees. Following David Cameron''s pitiful pledge to take only 20,000 Syrian refugees from the refugee camps by 2020, Theresa May went further, not only arguing against rescue operations in the Mediterranean, calling it a pull factor, but also making life harder for asylum seekers when they arrive in Britain, maintaining the outsourcing of asylum reception services to private companies and offering asylum seekers below--standard financial support and subjecting them to appalling living conditions.

The Tory government under May continues to refuse to take part in receiving refugees: only 3% of asylum applications in Europe were lodged in Britain. In 2016, Britain received only 38,517 applications for asylum, compared with 722,370 applications in Germany, 123,432 in Italy and 85,244 in France. Anti--refugee, anti--migrant policies had taken mainstream stage throughout Western Europe. In 2016, Denmark passed a piece of draconian law that allowed Danish police authorities to search and seize valuables (worth more than 10,000 kroner, that is, £1,000) from asylum seekers, to "cover their housing and food costs". Worse still, the Danish law also ensures that a refugee has to wait three years to be able to apply for his/her family to come to Denmark. Denmark has always had low level of asylum applications, ranging between 3,000 to 5,000 annually before 2014. Even when tens of thousands fled from Syria and attempted to enter Europe, Denmark only received 15,000 asylum applications in 2014 and only 6,000 people were granted permit to stay. In 2015, when Germany was receiving around 800,000 asylum seekers, Denmark had only 18,500 applications, with 10,000 granted asylum.

In a country whose economic landscape has not been affected by the presence of refugee and migrant population, fear of an "invasion" is no doubt resulting from political manipulation. Martin Petersen, a Danish writer who has written extensively on migration in Europe, said that he feels appalled and saddened that a majority in the Danish parliament has voted these laws through. He had researched the journey of refugees and their conditions in Lampedusa in the 2000s, inspired by Italian journalist Fabrizio Gatti who conducted undercover work in order to reveal the refugees'' ill destiny in Europe. Petersen himself witnessed the subhuman living conditions and cruel treatment of refugees and migrants ? such as beating and the use of racist language ---- in Italian reception centres, which he renamed "the container park" in his novel Exit Sugartown.".