Sources report that today in Ventimiglia, Italian police are rounding up mostly African migrants along the Italy-France border while European officials were meeting to discuss the immigration crisis. Police officers can be seen in photos dressed in riot gear and using brute force to haul the migrants into buses.

What crisis you ask? Over the last year thousands of migrants have been arriving into Europe in overcrowded boats, and Italy has been working with the European Union to try to rescue migrants from rocky seasides or those stranded at sea. Some migrants have shared that they have nowhere to go and nowhere to call home but find themselves instead at the mercy of the state.

As migrants fight for new homes and recognition, European countries are fighting among themselves over who should assume the responsibility of the growing migrant population. France has refused any accountability over them and insists that they are the obligation of Italy, while Italy argues that the European Union should be doing more.

This human rights issue comes alongside the crisis in the Dominican Republic that has threatened to deport persons of Haitian descent potentially leaving hundreds, maybe thousands of persons stateless.

https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/610871147320750081

These battles for recognition and defense of a state have left many questioning what started this wave. People are even referring to it as an attempt to provide an “ethnic cleansing” of various states and countries.