Fleeing violence and devastation: That’s the struggle for many people who travel the globe looking for a country to call home.

by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer

Out of Africa

A would-be immigrant crawls on a beach in Spain’s Canary Islands after his arrival on a makeshift boat on May 5, 2006. Some 38 people made it to the beach on the boat, and 39 were intercepted in another vessel off the coast on their way from Africa to European soil.

Fenced Out

An African migrant is lowered from a border fence by a Spanish Civil Guard, as fellow migrants assist, at the border between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla during an attempt to cross into Spanish territory on April 3. Spain has more than doubled the strength of its security forces at Melilla after about 500 people stormed the fences in the biggest border rush in years. Immigrants from all over Africa regularly brave the razor-wire fences of Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla, which are surrounded by Moroccan territory and the sea.

Syrians Wait for Aid

Syrian children wait as Bulgarian doctors perform medical checkups at a refugee center in Sofia on Oct. 26, 2013. On June 5, 2014, China offered $16 million in aid for 2.7 million Syrian refugees who have been forced from their homes during the country’s three-year conflict. 

Fleeing Honduras

A 2009 coup that ousted the democratically elected president has brought instability to the country of Honduras, and many have fled. Here, Honduran immigrant Jose Humberto Castro, 26, clings to a freight train in Orizaba in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, on Nov. 3, 2010. Every day, hundreds of Central American immigrants try to cross from Mexico into the United States, according to Mexico's National Migration Institute.

Praying for Safety

A would-be immigrant prays after arriving on Gran Canaria, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, on July 1, 2008. Some 133 people were intercepted aboard two fishing boats on their way to European soil from Africa, Spanish police said.

Masses of Migrants

Migrants aboard a navy ship before disembarking in the Sicilian harbor of Augusta on June 1. Italian Navy patrol ships rescued more than 3,500 migrants, including hundreds of women and children, from boats coming from North Africa, authorities said on Saturday. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for help from the European Union.

The rescues, which the Italian Coast Guard said have been going on since Friday evening, are the latest in a seemingly endless succession as the chronic migrant crisis in the southern Mediterranean has picked up this year. A total of 3,612 migrants from Syria and North Africa were picked up from 11 boats and taken to ports in Sicily and the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. Some 43,000 people have crossed from North Africa to Italy so far this year, the same amount as in the whole of 2013, the coast guard said.

Thirsty for Land

Armed forces from Malta toss bottles of water to a group of about 180 illegal immigrants during a rescue operation—the immigrants’ vessel ran into engine trouble southwest of Malta—on Sept. 25, 2005. 

Lean on Me

Syrian boys walk shoulder to shoulder in the rain at the Boynuyogun refugee camp on the Turkey-Syria border in Hatay Province, Turkey, on Feb. 8, 2012. 

This article was originally posted on Take Part.