A chilling figure is going the rounds — not at the official level but among expert analysts and consultants at informal seminars and discussions.
It is that the estimates so far of the likely flow of immigrants (both refugees and economic migrants) seeking to come to Europe from the African continent between now and 2020 is not the 1 or 2 million spoken of a few years back, nor yet the 6 million in more recent assessments, but 60 million.
Such is estimated to be the vast number of tragically disadvantaged people — men, women and children — from the North African coastal states (the Maghreb), from Africa south of the Sahara, and from the Horn of Africa and other regions who feel so totally uprooted and desperate, for any number of causes, that they are ready to start the dangerous journey north in hope of a better life in Europe.