Well, behind every headline in the press, or photo on the news, is a real person who risked their life to make a journey – and felt like they had no choice.
Meet some of the people who made it to Kos. Here are their stories.
RAMI, 27, SYRIA - The only brother left
“My family said, ‘Please go’.”
“I am one of four brothers: one is in jail, one died in the war when our house was destroyed by fighting, and one is missing, feared dead.
“My parents are still in Syria – they are old now and don’t want to leave. But they told me that I should leave, as I was the only one left with a chance of survival.”
Rami made the trip to Europe via Turkey, along with two friends from Syria. He spent a month in Turkey, and then paid £1,000 to be brought over to Kos in an inflatable boat.
Rami now has papers. He is trying to look ahead to the future.
“I want to go to Zurich because my dream is to do a PhD, and there are only a few universities that accept my Masters.
“I was surprised when we arrived in Europe. I thought that people would be angry when we arrived – but people were crying.”
AHMED, 22, PAKISTAN - Playing the death game
“I don’t know how we survived. It was a death game.”
“We came on a simple boat that only had a battery – no fuel.”
Ahmed travelled to Iran and then spent six months in Turkey, before making the journey to Kos by boat.
He was living across the street from the abandoned hotel Captain Elias, until the land was cleared (“I woke up this morning to the sound of bulldozers.”) He now lives in Captain Elias.
“We are waiting here for stamped papers, but we are being ignored. People only eat once a day.
“People are here for their dreams, not their enjoyment. In Pakistan, I was a law student. If you knew how we came here, you would understand.”
MOHAMMED, 22, IRAQ- A long wait in hot sun
“We have been kept inside the police station all day, with no food or WC. The children are tired. And there are people who are sick and can’t walk, and can’t stay in the hot sun.”
The Red Cross in Greece, the Hellenic Red Cross, has just given Mohammed some papers and a food parcel. This was after he waited outside the police station every day, for six days, to register.
Conditions are tense. Police guard the centre. They only allow a person inside if their name is on a list from the border agency. Meanwhile, people wait outside in the heat, straining to hear someone call their name.
Some asylum seekers are given papers and shelter on a nearby cruise ship, which is docked at the port.
“Why the difference?” Mohammed asks. “We are fleeing from the same trouble, the same war.
“I tried to get on the cruise ship. They wouldn’t allow me. I said: ‘Where do I go?’ They said, ‘That’s not my problem.’”
Mohammed is currently living in a hotel, sharing a room with seven friends. They split the cost – 80 euros a night – between them.
“I want to go to Athens, and then maybe to Germany. I’m a student, but I left my college and all of my family behind because of the conflict.
“The war in Iraq is the same as the war in Syria. I left Iraq because I was afraid of dying.”