More than a million people arrived in the European Union in 2015, while almost 3,700 died or went missing during the journey. One photograph changed the public perception of the crisis.
On 2 September, the body of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping thousands of refugees fleeing Syria's four-year civil war.
24 July 2015: This Nasa photo of Pluto was taken by the New Horizons interplanetary space probe when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000km) awayNasa/JHUAPL/SwRI/Reuters25 July 2015: Sharon Cooper kneels over the burial plot of her sister Sandra Bland during her funeral in the Chicago suburb of Willow Springs. Bland was found dead in a Texas jail days after she was arrested following a traffic stopJim Young/Reuters30 July 2015: A migrant climbs a security fence at a Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles near Calais, northern France. One man died the previous night in a desperate attempt to reach England via the Channel TunnelPhilippe Huguen/AFP31 July 2015: Flames from the Rocky Fire approach a house in Lower Lake, CaliforniaJustin Sullivan/Getty Images1 August 2015: People cool off at a water park in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, as temperatures hit 35CChina Daily/Reuters8 August 2015: A flamingo and chicks are seen in a corral before being fitted with identity rings at dawn at a lagoon in the Fuente de Piedra natural reserve, near Malaga, southern SpainJon Nazca/Reuters11 August 2015: A dinghy overcrowded with Syrian refugees drifts in the Aegean sea between Turkey and Greece after its motor broke down off the Greek island of KosYannis Behrakis/Reuters13 August 2015: A young Syrian child looks at the camera as refugees arrive at a beach on the Greek island of Kos after crossing a part of the Aegean sea from Turkey on a dinghyMilos Bicanski/Getty Images13 August 2015: Smoke billows behind rows of burnt-out cars after a series of massive explosions at a warehouse in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin killed 173 peopleGreg Baker/AFP14 August 2015: A grouse sits on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's head as he visits a facility of the Forest and Water Management Ministry in Rize, TurkeyReuters16 August 2015: An aerial picture of the site of massive explosions at an industrial zone in Tianjin, ChinaReuters19 August 2015: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hugs a US flag as he takes the stage for a campaign town hall meeting in Derry, New HampshireBrian Snyder/Reuters27 August 2015: A veterinarian takes a picture of a two-year-old orangutan at Kao Pratubchang Conservation Centre in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Vets checked 14 orangutans for preparation for the repatriation to their country of origin, Indonesia. Most of the Sumatran and Borneo Kalimantan orangutans were confiscated from entertainment businesses in PhuketAthit Perawongmetha/Reuters28 August 2015: Palestinians scuffle with an Israeli soldier as they try to prevent him from detaining a boy during a protest against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near RamallahMohamad Torokman/Reuters30 August 2015: Russian President Vladimir Putin exercises in a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in SochiMichael Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Reuters31 August 2015: An injured national guard officer is carried away by comrades after several explosive devices were thrown from crowds in front of the Ukrainian parliament building in KievValentyn Ogirenko/Reuters1 September 2015: An African migrant rests after arriving on a fishing boat at Las Carpinteras beach on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria, SpainBorja Suarez/Reuters1 September 2015: A boy wears a German police officer's cap while migrants and refugees wait for a bus after their arrival at the main train station in Munich, southern GermanyChristof Stache/AFP2 September 2015: A Turkish police officer carries the body of a Syrian refugee child named Alan Kurdi who washed up on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey, after a boat sank while reaching the Greek island of KosNilufer Demir/AFP3 September 2015: Policemen get hit by eggs as farmers and dairy farmers from all over Europe take part in a demonstration outside a European Union farm ministers' emergency meeting at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, BelgiumEric Vidal/Reuters3 September 2015: Hungarian police stop a family of refugees as they tried to run away at the railway station in the town of BicskeLaszlo Balogh/Reuters8 September 2015: TV camerawoman Petra Laszlo trips a man carrying a child as they tried to escape from a collection point in Roszke, Hungary. Laszlo was fired after videos of her kicking and tripping up migrants fleeing police spread in the media and on the internetMarko Djurica/Reuters9 September 2015: Migrants and refugees make their way through Serbia, near the town of Subotica, towards a break in the steel and razor wire fence erected on the border by the Hungarian governmentChristopher Furlong/Getty Images10 September 2015: Residents wait for rescue helicopters in a residential area flooded by the Kinugawa river in Joso, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. Some 90,000 people were ordered to evacuate after rivers burst their banks in cities north of Tokyo following days of heavy rain caused by Typhoon EtauKyodo/Reuters10 September 2015: A Syrian refugee kisses his daughter as he walks through a rainstorm towards Greece's border with MacedoniaYannis Behrakis/Reuters11 September 2015: Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London the day before being appointed as the new Labour Party leaderStefan Wermuth/Reuters20 September 2015: Migrants and refugees desperately try to board a train heading for Zagreb from Tovarnik station in CroatiaJeff J Mitchell/Getty Images23 September 2015: Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama stand for the national anthem of the Holy See during the arrival ceremony at the White House in Washington, DCAlex Wong/Getty Images27 September 2015: The supermoon rises behind Glastonbury Tor. This supermoon, so called because it was the closest full moon to the Earth this year, was particularly rare as it coincided with a lunar eclipse, a combination that had not happened since 1982 and won't happen again until 2033Matt Cardy/Getty Images5 October 2015: A shirtless Xavier Broseta, Executive Vice President for Human Resources and Labour Relations at Air France, is evacuated by security after employees interrupted a meeting and ripped the shirts off two executives at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near ParisJacky Naegelen/Reuters10 October 2015: The blood-covered hand of a victim is seen at the blast scene after an explosion during a peace march in Ankara, Turkey. More than 100 people were killed and over 400 injured in twin bomb blasts outside the main train station in the Turkish capitalDefne Karadeniz/Getty Images13 October 2015: Palestinian protesters put out a fire burning on a compatriot, caused by a Molotov cocktail that he was trying to hurl at Israeli troops during clashes in the West Bank city of HebronMussa Qawasma/Reuters14 October 2015: A female orangutan and her baby are rescued by animal welfare group International Animal Rescue while trying to escape forest fires in Katapang, West Kalimantan province, IndonesiaInternational Animal Rescue/Reuters15 October 2015: London Mayor Boris Johnson collides with 10-year-old Toki Sekiguchi during a game of street rugby with a group of children outside the Tokyo Square Gardens buildingIssei Kato/Reuters15 October 2015: The Queen chats to a guest at The University of Surrey's new School of Veterinary Medicine in Guildford, SurreyPeter Nicholls/Reuters24 October 2015: Police escort migrants and asylum seekers as they walk to a refugee centre after crossing the Croatian-Slovenian border near RigonceJure Makovec/AFP30 October 2015: A refugee prepares to hand over a toddler to a volunteer lifeguard as a half-sunken catamaran carrying around 150 refugees, most of them Syrians, arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing part of the Aegean sea from TurkeyGiorgos Moutafis/Reuters9 November 2015: Thousands of lifejackets left by migrants and refugees are piled up at a rubbish dump site on the Greek island of LesbosAlkis Konstantinidis/Reuters13 November 2015: An injured man is carried out of the Bataclan following fatal shootings in ParisChristian Hartmann/Reuters16 November 2015: The Eiffel Tower is illuminated in red, white and blue in honour of the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and left hundreds more injuredChristopher Furlong/Getty Images22 November 2015: People mourn and lay flowers outside Le Carillon restaurant in Paris, a week after a series of deadly attacks in the French capitalCharles Platiau/Reuters23 November 2015: An aerial photo shows red mud billowing into the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Espirito Santo, where the Rio Doce meets the sea, after a dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA and BHP BillitonRicardo Moraes/Reuters23 November 2015: An Iranian migrant with his lips sewn together sits on rail tracks at the border between Greece and Macedonia as Balkan countries begin filtering the flow of migrants to Europe, granting passage to those fleeing conflict in Syria and Afghanistan but turning back others from Africa and AsiaYannis Behrakis/Reuters25 November 2015: Lamon Reccord, 16, confronts a police officer in Chicago after Laquan McDonald, 17, was fatally shot by Jason Van Dyke, a Chicago police officerAndrew Nelles/Reuters6 December 2015: A man wades through flood waters in Carlisle after Storm Desmond dumped unprecedented amounts of rain on CumbriaJeff J Mitchell/Getty Images9 December 2015: A baby seal with an injured eye looks out from its cubicle as it is rehabilitated at the RSPCA centre at West Hatch in Taunton, SomersetMatt Cardy/Getty Images11 December 2015: People take part in an anti-Trump, pro-immigration protest outside the Plaza Hotel in New York, where US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was due to speakBrendan McDermid/Reuters15 December 2015: British astronaut Tim Peake gestures to his child from a bus prior to blasting off to the International Space Station from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in KazakhstanKirill Kudryavtsev/AFP19 December 2015: A heat-stressed koala allows a resident to pour water on its back in Adelaide, Australia. The city was experiencing an extreme heatwave, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees for five consecutive daysMorne de Klerk/Getty Images21 December 2015: Rescue workers search among the debris of destroyed buildings after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, ChinaReuters
