Last year Europe received around 484,600 asylum applications, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). Among those, 21,293 were Eritrean refugees, the majority of whom had arrived by boat from Libya to Italy. ...
"There are 13,000 Eritreans ready to cross the Mediterranean as soon as the waters calm down," says Tsegay, an Eritrean smuggler who allowed me to interview him. ....
During 2013 and into 2014, refugee arrivals increased so rapidly -- up to 1,000 people a week came during February 2014 -- that Ethiopian authorities had to open a new camp, Hitsats, around 60 miles north of Adi Harush.
(Photo: the new Hitsatats refugee camp in Tigray)
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