In the absence of safe and legal routes into Europe, over recent years hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants have travelled irregularly, at considerable risk to their own lives. Rather than creating an orderly system offering safe avenues for people to reach Europe, and advocating for the respect and protection of human rights in countries were conflict, persecution and poverty are displacing people, European leaders have increasingly focussed on blocking borders and negotiating with human rights violating governments to stop them coming.