This story was published on Cardiff News Plus website in May 2015

According to the UNHCR, a record 219,000 people boarded smuggler boats to cross the Mediterranean in 2014 and 3,500 died. So far in 2015, 62,500 migrants have reached European shores and at least 1,800 have died.

But migration is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening throughout history and it has notably increased in recent years due to wars and unstable situations in Middle Eastern and African countries.

Mzafar Hassan, 23,  is one of more than 140,000 refugees living in the UK, according to the Home Office Statistics in Migration.  He has been here since 2009 when he was forced to flee Iraq. Mzafar’s story is one of the many stories of those who face life-threatening in their home countries and flee to Europe in the hope for a better life. Click in the audio below to listen to Mzafar’s interview.