November 2015.
In 2015, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees flooded into Austria from the Hungarian city of Hegyeshalom, which is nearly 4 miles, or 6 kilometers, from the Austrian-Hungarian border. According to the United Nations, more than 4 million Syrians fled the country since the conflict there began in 2011.
"We took the boat of death and drowned in the Aegean Sea on the way to Greece," said Hassan Elbalah, one refugee.
I was in Europe in September, and as I waited in the bus station in Berlin before heading to Hungary, two Syrian men approached me and desperately asked me if I knew how they can go Malmo, Sweden.
When I arrived, the Keleti train station in Budapest seemed deserted of refugees as most of them were bussed to Austria two days before. The next day, I took a train to Hegyeshalom and I saw hundreds of refugees who came via Croatia. As many marched toward what they considered a final destination for them, others planned to continue farther and reach the German border.
The refugee crisis this year stands to be the worst since World War II.
