Economic pain, Turkish strikes drive Syrian Kurds to Europe
QAMISHLI, Syria: Baran Ramadan Mesko had been hiding with other migrants for weeks in the coastal Algerian city of Oran, awaiting a chance to take a boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Days before the 38-year-old Syrian Kurd was to begin the journey, he received news that a smuggler boat carrying some of his friends had sunk soon after leaving the Algerian coast. Most of its passengers had drowned.
It came as a shock, after spending weeks to get to Algeria from Syria and then waiting for a month for a smuggler to put him on the boat.
![At least 246 migrants have gone missing while trying to cross the western Mediterranean into Europe in 2022. (AP)](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2022/12/21/3596001-1344021006.jpg)