“Death’s quick in Syria – here, we are dying slowly.  Give me the money to pay a smuggler and I’ll go back to Syria right now,” said Thaer Al Nahir, a 39-year-old Syrian refugee to British reporters yesterday,  echoing the sentiment of many of over 60,000 refugees who have been trapped in Greece for several months while awaiting asylum in richer European countries like Germany.

In what has been recognized as Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II, it is estimated that approximately a million people fleeing war, poverty and persecution have arrived on Greece’s shores.

According to the Daily Mail article, many Syrian refugees and other migrants would prefer making the journey back to their war-torn countries than live like hostages in Greece at a time when the country is undergoing serious financial problems and political instability, and is thus ill-equipped to take on a humanitarian crisis of such magnitude.