Caitlin Hu, Deputy Editor for Quartz Ideas spotted the ignominy. Over the past few months, beaches throughout Europe have been witness to unprecedented scenes – tourists sunbathing as refugees make their way ashore.

© Borja Suarez – Maspalomas beach, on Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands.

An incongruous scene has become increasingly common on Europe’s beaches: tourists sunbathing, fishing and playing as bedraggled migrants make their way ashore. 

“This is an era of unprecedented movement across borders,” Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization of Migration in Italy, told the Washington Post in April. In 2014, the European Union received about 626,000 applications for asylum, the most since 1992.

So far this year, more than 100,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean, bound for European shores. Nearly 2,000 have died at sea. The photos below suggest how chillingly unremarkable this flow of lives has become, at least to some seaside habitués.

© Jose Palazon- African migrants attempt to cross into Spanish territories between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla.

© Borja Suarez- Two would-be immigrants rest at Maspalomas beach in Spain’s Canary Islands.

© Alessandro Bianchi- Migrants (R) sit next to tourists near a beach at the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

 © Eric Gaillard – A man fishes from his boat as a group of migrants gather on the seawall at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.

 © Jean-Pierre Amet- A group of migrants protect themselves from the weather with emergency blankets at the Saint Ludovic border between Vintimille, Italy and Menton, France.

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