(MENAFN- Arab Times) In this week's Arab Times online poll, readers weighed in on the Europe migrant crisis and why the continent is being flooded by migrants and refugees. Over half of the respondents felt that civilians were escaping the crisis in Syria for survival and a better future.

Europe faces an emergency as tens of thousands of migrants and refugees from Syria, the Middle East and Africa attempt to cross into its territory and seek asylum. Approximately 200,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe via the Mediterranean this year.

51 percent of voters were of the view that the exodus was sincerely compelled by survival instincts while 33 percent felt that refugees were taking advantage of Europe's humanitarian laws. "It is unfair to assume that refugees are trying to exploit Europe's welfare system and policies. Their countries have been torn apart by war and ravaged by extremists. These people are fleeing disaster, they are not opportunists", a reader shared. According to UNHCR's annual Global Trends Report, worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded and the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 stood at 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago. Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum and over half the world's refugees are children.

Since early 2011, the main reason for the acceleration has been the war in Syria, now the world's single-largest driver of displacement. Every day last year on average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced, a four-fold increase in just four years. 12 percent believed many male militants disguised as migrants & refugees were entering Europe while 10 percent of readers are of the view that the migration is a psychological weapon attack by ISIL/DAESH on West. "It is very likely that militants will use the refugee outflow to infiltrate Europe.

As such, there should be measures to identify these extremists", a respondent shared. "I think that the international community has lost the war to ISIS if all these people are abandoning their homes. It just goes to show that our collective response to the Syrian crisis has been extremely inadequate", a reader stated. 6 percent felt that Gulf and Islamic countries do thorough checks before accepting them while 5 percent of voters felt that Gaddafi's prophecy of the Mediterranean becoming 'a sea of chaos' has finally come true.