The images and the impressions of the past days keep mounting, cancelling each other, changing by the minute, or according to where one is focusing. It seems it is only now that Europe as a whole has woken up to the full extent of the fallout from the Syrian civil war

Here are six reasons why it is only now that we have woken up to the Syria refugee crisis, taken from a Guardian blog: Firstly, the war is not getting any better. That has the dual effect of prompting more Syrians to leave their country and causing Syrians in exile in Turkey to give up hope of returning home.

Secondly, Turkey is not a country for people to stay in for the long term. It has been more receptive than most, taking in about two million Syrian refugees. But Syrians do not have the right to work there legally, so it is not a place to settle. Additionally, the recent electoral setbacks for the AKP, the party perceived as being most in favour of helping Syrian refugees, has made many Syrians nervous about Turkey’s political future.

Thirdly, UN bodies working with millions of refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon are complaining that they are running out of money, making camp conditions harsher than in the past and life more untenable for Syrians who live on their own but still depend on UN subsidies.

And these figures are just for the Syria region. In Eastern Europe, a conduit for thousands of refugees seeking respite in Europe, the finances are even more damning. A UNHCR request for £14 million to deal with the specific problems of conduit countries such as Italy, Hungary and Bosnia has only reached nine per cent of the target.

The knock-on effect is that the UN has been unable to provide as much financial support to Syrian refugees in the Middle East during the past year, and why so many have opted for Europe as a result.

A fourth point is that people have finally saved up enough money. It is expensive to pay for your family to cross to Greece and then work your way up through Europe. Depending on how many smugglers you use, every individual might spend about $3,000 to get to Germany. It takes time to get that kind of cash – and maybe we are now seeing the result of several years of penny-pinching.

Fifth, there is now a known route. People have long trekked through the Balkans to the EU, but Syrians were not previously among them. That changed late last summer, when the first few Syrians found the Balkan route to Europe. Those trailblazers told their friends, who told their friends, who set up Facebook groups about it. Suddenly a phenomenon was born – and one that grew still faster when people realised that the window might not stay open for much longer.

And sixth, the crisis is only a crisis because of the European response to it. EU countries have spent all year debating and procrastinating about an appropriate solution to Europe’s biggest refugee movement since the Second World War.

So over the past days, the wave has become a tidal wave of humanity, spread out all the way from Syria to Germany.

Reuters reported that wouldbe refugees hoping to flee war in the Middle East are using Facebook as their compass for finding the people smugglers they hope will get them to a better life in Europe.

The US-based website and other social media that were once used to help mobilize the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings now host information services for those escaping the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the region.

There refugees can find much of what they need to know, right down to the prices, fees, bribes they will have to pay on a journey fraught with dangers ranging from drowning at sea to suffocating in a lorry.

On top of this, messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Viber help them en route to contact smugglers, friends and families alike while Internet mapping ensures they don’ get lost.

In Facebook groups set up in Arabic, users post phone numbers of contacts they say can take refugees from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands or even further into Europe, a continent struggling to cope with the migration crisis.

For those seeking a boat ride to Greece, details on where best to cross the Serbian-Hungarian border, or the price for being smuggled all the way from Turkey to Germany, users of these groups appear to offer many of the answers.

An ad posted this week offered a late availability seat in a rubber dinghy departing from the Turkish seaside city of Izmir, one of the main points of departure for Syrian refugees trying to reach Greece. The price: $1,200.

‘The trip is tomorrow, 100 per cent, for sure,’ it said. ‘They’ll give you a free life jacket.’ Another post offered places on a more comfortable ‘tourist yacht’ at €2,500

The tidal wave has become unstoppable, as Hungary’s fiery, xenophobic premier, Viktor Orban, has found out to his cost. He tried everything – a wall along the frontier with Serbia, razor-sharp barbed wire, guards, stun grenades, but the people kept coming. They ended up in a huge crowd bivouacking at a Budapest train station.

Not yet learning his lesson, Orban shut up the station and banned trains going west. He was supported, as he always is, by the most vociferous of his people.

That was when the submissive, extraordinarily-disciplined refugees, many with quite high academic qualifications, showed their mettle. Late on Friday they set off to walk the 150km-something to Vienna and real freedom. They kept walking even when a heavy storm broke out. Shamed, Orban at long last sent buses to take them to the Austrian border.

There, and subsequently in Germany they were welcomed, almost fêted. Now begins the process of adjustment to a new life. Germany needs manpower due to its ageing population and its industrial might is endangered by lack of births.

Due to our minute size, we are not in the path of this tidal wave. The refugees who do make it here face far more considerable dangers crossing Libya, and especially taking to flimsy boats in an unpredictable sea. The people who end up on our shores are mainly from sub-Saharan countries or African countries with ongoing civil wars.

The many xenophobic voices we hear are not dissimilar to that of Orban. They are as selfdefeating as his. His push-back tactics proved futile and led to his country gaining itself a black name in the world.

And that’s without people dying, except children like little Aylan, whose photo touched the world’s heartstrings. Whereas in our case, we will face international condemnation if any push-back leads to death at sea, and this would thrust Hungary’s black name into oblivion.