So far this year, an estimated 350,000 people have fled the Middle East and Africa to escape regions ravaged by conflict.
More than 230,000 of those migrants have arrived in Greece, having traveled there from Turkey. Others have headed to places such as Italy, Hungary, Germany and Spain.
It is believed about 2,000 people per day attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach a safer country.
Here are three things to know about this migrant crisis:
1. Many migrants are attempting to enter the European Union illegally. A border force called Frontex is monitoring the different routes migrants are taking and carrying out many rescue operations in the sea, according to the BBC. Most of the migrants are from Syria, which is in the midst of a civil war. Some fleeing other countries are attempting to get away from extreme poverty and abuse. Violence and instability in Libya in the past few years has fueled the number of migrants who are crossing the Mediterranean, who used to go to Libya for asylum.
2. Germany is expecting 800,000 migrants this year and receives the most asylum applications, according to the BBC. Austria expects 80,000 applications. Hungary, which received more than 34,000 in July alone, has built a wire fence to keep people out, and has plans to fortify it.
3. The voyage is dangerous for many. People are flooding train stations and climbing barbed-wire fences in order to flee. An estimated 2,500 have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea during this current migrant crisis. Some media outlets are showing graphic images of the dead to put emphasis on the growing problem.
There are organizations focused on aiding migrants who are crossing the sea. A couple in Louisiana paid $8 million to buy a boat that is searching the Mediterranean for boats of migrants in need of rescue, according to CNN.
