Haunting Life Jacket Images Illustrate Desperation In Refugee Crisis

Stirring photos of piles of abandoned life jackets -- some amounting to just flimsy pieces of plastic -- speak to the extraordinary dangers that hundreds of thousands of refugees are enduring to make their way to safety in the European Union.

Over 350,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in 2015, many on dangerously overcrowded boats with leaks and faulty motors; through extreme weather and total darkness; and under the threat of mysterious masked gunmen that appear to be targeting Syrian refugees fleeing war in their homeland -- all with nothing but a life jacket as a precaution.