The EU is struggling to respond to a surge of desperate migrants, thousands of whom have perished in their attempts to seek a better life in Europe. Where are they going and where are they coming from?

The mass influx has created the biggest crisis of irregular migration Europe has seen since 1945, raising doubts about open borders and tensions between countries over sharing the burden.

The largest group of people reaching Europe through the Mediterranean or the western Balkans are Syrians fleeing a civil war, but there are also many from Eritrea and Afghanistan, as well as Kosovo and Nigeria. The Financial Times examines the flows of people, their asylum applications and the EU’s relocation proposals.