There is one obvious common strand in the journeys undertaken by so many millions, amid hardship and often at peril of their lives: Like migrants since the beginning of time, they hope to better themselves. Back in 1971, I made a film for BBC TV in Mauritania, western Africa, about a famine driven by drought across the Sahel region. Working for days among tribesmen in remote places, I was conscious that they viewed me and my camera crew as they might visiting Martians: They had not the remotest conception of what manner of people we were, or what place we had come from.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 11, 2021 08:03 UTC