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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Thousands Ricochet Across Europe: Inside the Migrant Crisis | Thousands Ricochet Across Europe: Inside the Migrant Crisis |
| (4 days later) | |
| Mary Ann Giordano is a deputy editor assigned to the International desk and is based in Paris. | Mary Ann Giordano is a deputy editor assigned to the International desk and is based in Paris. |
| Rick Lyman was on the phone. | Rick Lyman was on the phone. |
| “I’ve just been gassed,” he said. | “I’ve just been gassed,” he said. |
| “What?” His tone was calm, matter-of-fact even, and I wondered if I had heard him right. | “What?” His tone was calm, matter-of-fact even, and I wondered if I had heard him right. |
| “I’ve been gassed,” he said. “We’ve been gassed.” | “I’ve been gassed,” he said. “We’ve been gassed.” |
| By “we” he meant he and our Budapest stringer, Helene Bienvenu, who was with him at Hungary’s border with Serbia. “Some kind of pepper spray or something. I don’t know, maybe it was tear gas.” | By “we” he meant he and our Budapest stringer, Helene Bienvenu, who was with him at Hungary’s border with Serbia. “Some kind of pepper spray or something. I don’t know, maybe it was tear gas.” |
| Rick, our Warsaw bureau chief responsible for reporting on Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and Helene had arrived at the Serbian border crossing in Horgos that afternoon just in time to witness — and be caught up in — a melee between migrants and Hungary’s riot police. Asylum-seekers who had missed the opportunity to cross into Hungary turned their frustration on the police who were reinforcing new border gates. | Rick, our Warsaw bureau chief responsible for reporting on Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and Helene had arrived at the Serbian border crossing in Horgos that afternoon just in time to witness — and be caught up in — a melee between migrants and Hungary’s riot police. Asylum-seekers who had missed the opportunity to cross into Hungary turned their frustration on the police who were reinforcing new border gates. |
| Twice the migrants had tried to push their way past the police, and twice the police had responded with force, tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons and batons. Among those who were doused were the young men tugging at the fence, but also women, children and our correspondents. | Twice the migrants had tried to push their way past the police, and twice the police had responded with force, tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons and batons. Among those who were doused were the young men tugging at the fence, but also women, children and our correspondents. |
| It was Rick and Helene’s latest stop in pursuit of a story that has so far lived up to its reputation: the biggest migrant crisis in Europe since World War II. It has been my job, since the crisis intensified a month ago, to coordinate the coverage and figure out the best ways to tell a story that is unlikely to abate any time soon. | It was Rick and Helene’s latest stop in pursuit of a story that has so far lived up to its reputation: the biggest migrant crisis in Europe since World War II. It has been my job, since the crisis intensified a month ago, to coordinate the coverage and figure out the best ways to tell a story that is unlikely to abate any time soon. |
| With people arriving by the thousands every day from troubled nations like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea — even Ethiopia — Europe has been experiencing a momentous upheaval. The migrants come on foot, bus and train, making it a news story on the move, snaking its way erratically — and sometimes tragically — across the continent. | With people arriving by the thousands every day from troubled nations like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea — even Ethiopia — Europe has been experiencing a momentous upheaval. The migrants come on foot, bus and train, making it a news story on the move, snaking its way erratically — and sometimes tragically — across the continent. |
| Rick was at the Hungary-Serbia border after anchoring days of tense developments while based in Budapest. He had been on assignment in Ukraine when the migration crisis reached his reporting territory, and so had been summoned back there to report and write. The Ukraine story that he was working on is still in his notebook, he has reminded me. | Rick was at the Hungary-Serbia border after anchoring days of tense developments while based in Budapest. He had been on assignment in Ukraine when the migration crisis reached his reporting territory, and so had been summoned back there to report and write. The Ukraine story that he was working on is still in his notebook, he has reminded me. |
| Alison Smale, our Berlin bureau chief, had been in Austria for what she thought would be an overnight trip to cover a conference. But while there, news broke that 71 migrants were found dead in a truck on the side of an Austrian highway. That was on Aug. 27, and Alison did not get back to her home in Berlin for almost two more weeks. | Alison Smale, our Berlin bureau chief, had been in Austria for what she thought would be an overnight trip to cover a conference. But while there, news broke that 71 migrants were found dead in a truck on the side of an Austrian highway. That was on Aug. 27, and Alison did not get back to her home in Berlin for almost two more weeks. |
| Palko Karasz is a researcher in our London bureau who speaks Hungarian. We sent him to Budapest a month ago. He hasn’t been back to London since. (His mother in Budapest is very happy.) | Palko Karasz is a researcher in our London bureau who speaks Hungarian. We sent him to Budapest a month ago. He hasn’t been back to London since. (His mother in Budapest is very happy.) |
| They are part of a team that has been engaged, with little sleep, for over a month since migration into Europe reached enormous numbers and national and European leaders failed to agree on a way to manage it. | They are part of a team that has been engaged, with little sleep, for over a month since migration into Europe reached enormous numbers and national and European leaders failed to agree on a way to manage it. |
| All kinds of simple analogies come to mind: A story that is like a rock falling off a cliff, bouncing here and there and leaving its mark wherever it hits. Like a game of Whac-a-Mole: One crisis abates and another pops up. Or like a pinball game, with thousands of people ricocheting around Europe, facing obstacles in search of the right route, with winners and losers on both sides. None does the story justice. | |
| For the last month, the story has drawn most of the reporters and bureau chiefs from The Times’s offices in Germany, Brussels and London, as well as staff members in Paris. To cover it, we also enlisted two researchers (Palko from London and Katarina Johannsen from our Berlin bureau) and other support staff, not to mention photographers, videographers, mapmakers, graphics artists and web producers. We have also called on an impressive — and indefatigable — team of freelancers and stringers in the region. | |
| Helming the coverage has been our morning web editor, Michael Wolgelenter and, recently, Sewell Chan in London, who work with Dan Bilefsky to produce an early story for the web on European time. That story usually goes through several iterations before it is seen by staff on the East Coast of the United States. | Helming the coverage has been our morning web editor, Michael Wolgelenter and, recently, Sewell Chan in London, who work with Dan Bilefsky to produce an early story for the web on European time. That story usually goes through several iterations before it is seen by staff on the East Coast of the United States. |
| International Desk editors then work to add dimension, context and fresh ideas to elevate our report beyond a mere retelling of the day’s events. Video, photos and graphic explainers are added for the web. By the time a story appears in print in the United States the next morning, it has usually been through several drafts, and often morphs into something completely different from how it started. | International Desk editors then work to add dimension, context and fresh ideas to elevate our report beyond a mere retelling of the day’s events. Video, photos and graphic explainers are added for the web. By the time a story appears in print in the United States the next morning, it has usually been through several drafts, and often morphs into something completely different from how it started. |
| In the 14 months since I joined the European operation, we have witnessed some major events: The Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. The emergence of homegrown terrorists. The Germanwings flight crash. Several rounds of the Greek debt crisis. But the migrant tragedy unfolding here seems like history in the making. We feel it keenly. No one complains. | In the 14 months since I joined the European operation, we have witnessed some major events: The Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. The emergence of homegrown terrorists. The Germanwings flight crash. Several rounds of the Greek debt crisis. But the migrant tragedy unfolding here seems like history in the making. We feel it keenly. No one complains. |
| An hour or so after Rick told me that he and Helene had been doused with tear gas and pepper spray, they were back in their rental car, looking for a spot with good Wi-Fi so he could write up his report. The story, which appeared on page A1, never mentioned that they had experienced the burning eyes and gagging that follow that kind of attack. | An hour or so after Rick told me that he and Helene had been doused with tear gas and pepper spray, they were back in their rental car, looking for a spot with good Wi-Fi so he could write up his report. The story, which appeared on page A1, never mentioned that they had experienced the burning eyes and gagging that follow that kind of attack. |
| In fact, he never mentioned the incident again. He was on to Ljubljana, Slovenia, and there was a lot more work to be done. | In fact, he never mentioned the incident again. He was on to Ljubljana, Slovenia, and there was a lot more work to be done. |