Title: The road before me weeps : on the refugee route through Europe /
Authors: Thorpe, Nick, 1960-
Year: 2019
Subjects: Political refugees Europe History; Political refugees Europe Public opinion.; Public opinion Europe; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General.; Europe Emigration and immigration Government policy
Abstract: "Several million refugees and migrants set out for Europe from 2014 to 2018, spurred by war and chaos in Syria and Iraq, violence in Afghanistan, and hopelessness in countries bordering war zones. In 2015 and 2016 the western Balkans, from Turkey through Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, was their main entry point. As a BBC correspondent based in Budapest for more than three decades, Nick Thorpe was perfectly placed to cover the birth of the route, its heyday, and the attempts of numerous states to close it ever since. This is his intimate portrait of the daily lives of those stuck in razor-wire enclosures or on the move, along forest tracks, railway lines, motorways - and of the smugglers, border police and political leaders who help, exploit or obstruct them. In this eye-opening account, Thorpe challenges those who demonise or glorify migration, visits their arrivals in their new environment, and studies their impact on the countries that welcomed them with open arms or with hesitations"--from inside cover.
Contents: Introduction : the faces at the fence -- New year 2015 -- A time of fear -- Viktor Orbán's jihad -- The dog's breakfast -- A refugee victory -- The closing of the curtain -- Three savage frontiers -- A warehouse of souls -- The EU-Turkey deal -- The street of four winds -- Keep calm and think of England -- The women of Adaševci -- A slow and painful Europe -- Borderlands -- Wish you were here -- Afterword : seven levels of despair.