Is Escaping Conflict Worth It?

Staff Reporter Alex Batchelor

Some families from Syria think escaping conflict zones is worth any risk. Families are sending their kids across the Mediterranean with smugglers for them to have a better life. Parents pay these smugglers thousands of dollars to get their children across the sea to Germany or simply “safe land”. Sadly, not a lot of children make it. Many of them drown in the vessels. The deadly trip seems like the only option to parents for their children’s safety. Thousands of children are still traveling across the waters just to escape conflict.

Alan Kurdi would have been four today. He is one of the many who has drowned. Yusuf and Yunus are brothers. Yusuf, 6, and Yunus, 4, drowned in October of 2015. Farah, a cousin of these brothers, also drowned in October of 2015. And the ones who make it across usually end up in Greek detention centers hoping for the best. Some of these children in the centers don’t make it either. Rand, a 6-year-old girl arrived in Greece but died later after a train caused her to lose her balance, hitting her head fatally.

One family says, “Trying to reach Germany comes at a very high price."