In episode one of our series, VICE News correspondent Milène Larsson travels to the border between Morocco and Spain, where West Africans in their thousands storm the razor-wire-clad fences. Many are beaten back by border police or illegally returned.
In episode two of our series, VICE News correspondent Milène Larsson travels to the border between Greece and Turkey, where Syrian and Afghan refugees are paying large sums of money to take "death boats" to Greece.
In episode three of Europe or Die, VICE News correspondent Milène Larsson visits Bulgaria to see Europe’s newest border fence and speaks to Syrians who, because of the EU's Dublin Regulation, are trapped in one of Europe’s poorest countries.
In episode four of Europe or Die, VICE News correspondent Milène Larsson arrives in Italy as the only extensive search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean is replaced with a border surveillance mission, effectively leaving thousands of desperate migrants adrift in the sea.
VICE News is given access to chilling footage filmed by the Libyan coast guard, who have witnessed an influx of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, recovering hundreds of bodies of those who’ve drowned on their journey to Europe.
Demonized by some of the UK's tabloid press and holiday-makers alike, VICE News meets the actual migrants labeled as "boat people" on the Greek island of Kos. Many of these migrants have fled the Assad regime and the Islamic State in the Middle East, only to be met with hostility as they reach the island's shores.
VICE News travels to Sicily, one of the main stepping stones into Europe, to follow a police operation to arrest suspected smugglers at a boat landing, and meets a former member of a people trafficking network operating between Libya, Egypt, and Italy. We also find out about the land smuggling business of taking people from Sicily to northern Europe, and meet a small group of activists helping newly-arrived migrants and refugees avoid being exploited.
VICE News examines how Libya is struggling with the Mediterranean migrant crisis, where state-run detention centers are overcrowded and violent, and how government immigration controls are outsourced to militias, where they detain migrants en masse.
Syria's brutal civil war has created hundreds of thousands of refugees, civilians who have been forced to leave everything behind at home and travel in search of a new life in Europe. Ismail, 25, filmed his journey to Germany with 19-year-old Naeem, capturing the most dangerous parts of a perilous trip, including the boat crossing from Turkey to Greece where hundreds of refugees have died this year. In this exclusive footage, VICE News gives an insight into a desperate trek, as Ismail and Naeem give first-hand accounts of their journey, the life they left behind, and their hopes for the future.