The Road Before Me Weeps: On the Refugee Road through Europe.

• Author: Celik, Zehra

By Nick Thorpe

Yale University Press, 2019, 332 Pages, $28, ISBN: 9780300241228

The Road Before Me Weeps, written by BBC correspondent in Budapest Nick Thorpe, traces the stories of migrants and refugees coming from the war-torn countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The book tells the stories of refugees using the Western Balkan route, the preferred route from Turkey to Western Europe between 2014-2018. Thorpe details the experiences of the refugees on the road, the assistance and the hostility directed at them, and their failures and successes as they strive toward a life of peace and security in Western Europe. The author ingeniously blends facts and emotions, thanks to his recurrent visits to the fields, forests, refugee camps, villages, and towns where refugees rest or hide from officials. Thorpe's conversations with these travelers allow readers to witness the harsh living conditions to which they are exposed in their home countries, the conditions that make their decision to flee the country in which they were born unavoidable, their failed attempts, and recurring efforts to cross borders and seas, despite knowing that the possibility of death may await them at the end of the road.

The book unfolds the policies around the refugee influx to Europe and the experiences of the refugees along the Western Balkan migration route between 2014-2018. With a focus on the political atmosphere and the policies of European countries regarding the refugee influx, The Road Before Me Weeps may be summarized according to its main themes. Between 2014 and 2018, approximately 3.7 million people claimed asylum in European countries; the sudden influx of immigrants exceeded the capacity of both transit and target countries. Brexit and Donald Trump's campaign for presidency occurred exactly at this time and were in part the result of concerns about immigration. After 2014, under the Dublin procedures, the system that allowed the target country to send refugees back to the country through which they had first entered European territory became unworkable. The refugees objected to being deported to these countries, and the countries themselves refused to welcome them. Complicating matters further, particularly after the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, the readmission agreement that had been reached between the EU and Turkey was not working as efficiently as planned. The refugee influx caused a deadlock in the system and, as a result, each...