I am Professor Hans Roosling. This month, April 2015, more people than ever are grounding when traveling to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. Some come to look for job, but many are refugees from war and oppression. But why do they travel over land to Libya to get on to these dangerous boats? Is it because they can't afford to fly with an airplane? Let's look at the numbers. A single ticket from Ethiopia all the way directly to Stockholm cost 400 euro. To fly from Lebanon to London is 400 euro and you can buy a ticket to fly from Egypt to Rome in Italy for 320 euro. And the price to get on to these boats is consistently by media reported to be 1,000 euro or more. So to get on this crowded boats cost two to three times as much as to fly in a convenient airplane. So what exactly is it that stops the refugees from flying to Europe to apply for asylum? They can reach the airports. They can afford to buy a ticket, but that the check encounter they are stopped by the airlines from getting on to the airplane. And this is due to this European Union directive from 2001 that tells member countries how to combat illegal immigration. What this directive says is that every airline and boat lines that bring a person without the proper documents for entry have to pay all the costs for returning that person back to their country of origin. And this is what makes commercial airlines not to allow people to board if they don't have all documents. But of course this directive also says that it doesn't apply for refugees that want to come based on the Geneva Convention. The European government has escaped responsibility when they have transferred the task to decide who is a refugee and who is not a refugee to the staff at the check-in counter. So in practice what is happening is that no one can board without the visa. So it is this directive that is the reason for so many refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.