Economic Indicators

Photos: Holiday-makers are unfazed by migrants straggling onto their beaches

Maspalomas beach, Canary Islands.
Maspalomas beach, Canary Islands.
Image: Reuters/Borja Suarez
By
Caitlin Hu
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An incongruous scene has become increasingly common on Europe’s beaches: tourists sunbathing, fishing and playing as bedraggled migrants make their way ashore.

“This is an era of unprecedented movement across borders,” Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization of Migration in Italy, told the Washington Post in April. In 2014, the European Union received about 626,000 applications for asylum, the most since 1992.

So far this year, more than 100,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean,  bound for European shores. Nearly 2,000 have died at sea. The photos below suggest how chillingly unremarkable this flow of lives has become, at least to some seaside habitués.

Gran Tarajal beach in Spain’s Canary Island.
Gran Tarajal beach in Spain’s Canary Island.
Image: Reuters/Juan Medina
Two would-be immigrants rest at Maspalomas beach in Spain’s Canary Islands
Two would-be immigrants rest at Maspalomas beach in Spain’s Canary Islands
Image: Reuters/Borja Suarez
Migrants (R) sit next to tourists near a beach at the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
Migrants (R) sit next to tourists near a beach at the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
Image: Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
Maspalomas beach, on Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands.
Maspalomas beach, on Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands.
Image: Reuters/Borja Suarez
African migrants attempt to cross into Spanish territories between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla.
African migrants attempt to cross into Spanish territories between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla.
Image: Reuters/Jose Palazon
A man fishes from his boat as a group of migrants gather on the seawall at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.
A man fishes from his boat as a group of migrants gather on the seawall at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.
Image: Reuters/Eric Gaillard
A group of migrants protect themselves from the weather with emergency blankets at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.
A group of migrants protect themselves from the weather with emergency blankets at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.
Image: Reuters/Jean-Pierre Amet
The body of a migrant on a beach on El Matorral beach in Fuerteventura, Spain.
The body of a migrant on a beach on El Matorral beach in Fuerteventura, Spain.
Image: Reuters/Juan Medina