It has been four years since the struggle against Syrian dictator began. Thousands of people have lost their lives, entire cities have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people had to flee their homes chasing a desperate hope of a better tomorrow — a tomorrow when they can go to sleep at night not fearing the collapse of the whole building on their heads. The humanitarian crisis in Syria is deepening.

Overnight, it felt like the world has woken up surprised by how devastating the situation on the ground is, all because of the haunting photo of a lifeless body of a toddler found on a beach in Turkey. It was the body of Aylan Kurdi, 3, who died along with his brother and mother in an attempt to reach Greece.

There are more than four million people who have fled Syria since the beginning of the conflict. Some of those refugees live in poorly-funded camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. A great number of those distressed people have lost their lives trying to cross borders on rickety boats or boxed in outdated trucks.

Different UN bodies have been complaining that they are in desperate need for funding. The UNHCR is reporting more than 40 percent gap between what it actually needs and the funds it receives from rich countries. The problem goes even deeper when we go out of this refugee area; take the camps needed to host those trying cross to Europe through Hungary, Italy, and Bosnia and you would find that UNHCR has only reached nine percent of its targeted funds to support refugees in this area as reported by the Guardian.

Now, beyond the romanticized views of moral obligations and humanitarian responsibilities toward those in need, with the appealing photos of German fans carrying signs welcoming refugees in a football match and young people receiving refugees with roses and blankets at Austrian bus stations, the issue of refugees goes deeper than that. It is a mix of economical, social, demographical and security reasons that complicate any decision to host refugees within any country’s borders.

In Europe, where the crisis is intensifying these days, countries under the European flag are finding themselves divided on how to react and what to do. They suddenly feel that they are not that far away from the conflict zone as refugees are pouring through their beaches and train stations. “The resulting crisis may prove too big for Europe to handle,” wrote Paul Mason to the Guardian. “As it unfolds, this crisis will place a severe strain on the EU’s institutions, and even concepts, for handling migration.”

While writing this piece, there are thousands of refugees now trapped in Budapest stations trying to cross into Germany where Angela Merkel has decided to open Germany’s borders to receive more asylum seekers, leaving the UK and other countries under the Schengen agreement bewildered on what to do and how to react. Hinting yet again that the European giant is not as big and harmonized as we may think. “There is no coherence, no predictability and no urgency. As with Greece, and with the prolonged debt crisis of southern Europe, the institutions move sluggishly until leaders are forced into making flamboyant gestures, and no solution is ever reached,” wrote Paul Mason.

The US is also feeling the pinch; as until now it has received around 1,500 refugees from Syria. “The process is complicated by a long security vetting procedure meant to ensure that only desperate refugees, and not extremists from groups like Daesh, reach American soil,” reported the CNN. Following the crisis in Europe, the State Department spokesman John Kirby commented that the US was expected to double the figure of accepted refugees before the end of the year.

The Arab countries are at the heart of the problem as well; either hosting refugees or funding humanitarian agencies, there is a lot more that they can do.

No matter how many solutions the world could come up with to improve the situation, it will never cease unless the root of the problem itself is resolved that is the war in Syria.