Sally Hayden's Blog

34 years ago, on this exact date, the Berlin Wall fell. 1989 was also the year I was born. It was a time, I believe, when there was huge optimism about the future of Europe and what the EU itself could stand for. 

Today, what I see is a reversal of that hope. I see the condoning of gross human rights abuses, hypocrisy from European leadership, and the normalisation of mass death on our borders. I see EU policies that, outside the EU, are propping up dictatorships, militias and other systems that oppress people further, and in the long-term, are increasing the reasons why they need to flee.

I am a journalist, not an activist, and I don’t propose specific changes. But as a journalist, my job is to speak truth to power and to point out gross wrongdoing.

Aside from being a journalist, I am also a European, and over almost a decade now of reporting on migration-related issues, I have become increasingly horrified and ashamed about what is being done in my name; at the structures that are being built up to silence those undergoing abuse; and the rhetoric that is being used to distance our citizens from the human consequences of what we’re responsible for. 

During this speech, I’m going to talk about some of what I’ve found out, but there is obviously limited time, and I hope attendees will consider reading my book, which explains everything in more detail.

First, to tell you a bit about me and why I am talking about this. I’m a correspondent for the Irish Times, but I’ve also reported from across Africa and the Middle East for a wide range of other media, including the Guardian, CNN, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 News, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

In 2018, I was unexpectedly contacted by refugees incarcerated in Libyan migrant detention centres, who were using hidden phones to appeal for help. Since that day, I have focused on what is happening to people along what is known as the Central Mediterranean migration route, between Libya or Tunisia and Italy or Malta. The UN has called it the deadliest migration route in the world.

 Since 2014, more than 28,200 men, women and children have died or gone missing on the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe – more than 22,400 of them along this route. It’s a staggering number that’s also likely to be an underestimate.

The main reason I focused on the Central Mediterranean is because of the EU’s role. 

In 2017, the EU and Italy began what appeared tobe a deliberate circumnavigation of international law, aimed at keeping people off European territory. We carry out surveillance, flying drones and planes to spot boats, while spending tens of millions of euros on supporting the Libyan coastguard to intercept them. International law says a European vessel cannot return people to Libya, so we pay for the Libyans to do it instead. In less than seven years, more than 125,000 people have been forced back to a militia-run state where they are often locked up indefinitely in detention centres that Pope Francis, among others, have called concentration camps. 

They are not charged with anything, not given access to a lawyer or a way to appeal their imprisonment. Among them are many children, who go without an education. Women, often pregnant as a result of rape, have given birth in the detention centres without medical care. 

Many fled wars in countries like Somalia or Sudan, or dictatorships like Eritrea. In countries neighbouring theirs, they were extorted or abused by security forces, threatened with deportation, or made to live in refugee camps without enough to eat. When they try to travel further, they are held for ransom by smugglers and traffickers, their families forced to sell everything they own to raise thousands of dollars. 

 International human rights lawyers say the EU-supported interceptions at sea and return to detention in Libya could be considered crimes against humanity. My book was among other evidence cited in an International Criminal Court submission, by the ECCHR, last year that named 16 high-level decision makers from EU member states, the EU Commission, FRONTEX, the European External Action Service, and the EU naval force operation as alleged co-perpetrators.

I began documenting what was happening to people caught at sea because I realised European officials seemed to be deliberately not doing it. One question I asked multiple times, including to officials here in the European Parliament, was how many die in detention. 

Frontex told me it is not in their mandate to track this, as Libya is a sovereign state. EEAS told me to ask the UN Refugee Agency. UNHCR had no comprehensive figures. I myself documented large numbers of deaths from starvation, medical neglect, shootings, bombings, and torture. 

The dead included at least 53 people killed during a bombing and buried in unmarked graves. 

They included detainees who were praying when a militia opened fire on them. They included a young boy who died of treatable appendicitis and his father, who died weeks later of a heart condition and apparent heartbreak. There are so many more.

These deaths are the human consequences of our anti-migration efforts, but where is the accountability?

Returning people to Libya traps them in a cycle that also involves human smugglers. The smugglers work in league with both the coastguard and the detention centre management – this has been documented by an independent UN fact-finding mission, as well as by me. Videos of captives being tortured are even circulated by their families on social media, in a desperate bid to raise ransom money through crowdfunding. Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos says around one billion euros in ransoms could have been paid to smugglers in Libya by now. 

By funnelling people back to Libya, we support this monetisation of detention. And we increase the reasons why Libyans need to flee themselves.

While reporting the book, I spent Christmas on a rescue boat in the Mediterranean. The people it rescued in the end were Libyans escaping the militias – the same groups that EU money supports.

On that trip, I also witnessed first hand the criminalisation of search and rescue today amid the absence of European-led search and rescue efforts – I myself spent a year under criminal investigation after the mission. 

**

What I am telling you about Libya is just one example. Abuses are happening along the length of our borders, from Greece to Melilla.

The debate around migration often makes it sound like the only fault of the EU is inaction: such as failing to carry out search and rescue missions. But there has been prolonged and decisive action. Europe has exploited the wealth and resources of other countries for centuries, for example, and that has contemporary consequences which need to be acknowledged. Almost everyone I speak to who is trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea comes from a former European or British colony. 

I was asked today to speak specifically about why people are trying to come here, but there is no single answer to that.

The so-called migration crisis needs to be reframed as a global inequality crisis. We need to understand that a large portion of the world’s population cannot get on planes, they can’t access visas. Those trying to move are not a homogenous group, they come from a huge range of different backgrounds and have many different reasons for needing to travel, including escaping conflict, persecution, corruption, the breakdown of institutions, and crushing poverty, or being reunited with family members. Among them are musicians, engineers, dentists, farmers, law graduates, former aid workers – and people with a vast range of other experiences and skills. The only thing they all have in common is that they don’t have the security offered by a powerful passport – which they will get if they become a European.  

Though they do not not garner adequate global news coverage, there are recent or ongoing conflicts everywhere from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where nearly 7 million are displaced, to Tigray in northern Ethiopia, where estimates say hundreds of thousands could have been killed. There are people escaping Islamist insurgencies in the Lake Chad region, or insecurity in South Sudan. There are LGBT people looking for a place where they can live freely. It’s not that everyone is coming here, but those who do are seeking safety and security, and the chance to support people they’ve left behind. Excluding Palestinians, 75 percent of the world’s refugees are hosted in low and middle income countries: before the Ukraine war began, less than 10 percent of the world’s refugees lived in the EU; while more than 26 percent are currently hosted in Africa. 

Others, who would likely not qualify as refugees, may still be suffering in ways exacerbated by Europe.

In West Africa, for example, we see overfishing by European vessels contributing to the destruction of local fishing industries, a key reason why many Senegalese fishers tell me they can no longer make a life at home.

Climate change is also expected to cause huge future displacement. In Somalia, during two visits last year, I saw first hand the result of a drought that is said to have played a role in 43,000 excess deaths in 2022 – half of them children under the age of five. The drought is said to have been climate change related, yet Somalia itself produces a tiny fraction of the emissions that Western countries do. Despite having one third of the population, my country, Ireland, produces around 51 times Somalia’s emissions, according to the World Bank. Germany, with about five times the population, produces more than 900 times more. 

***

At the moment, when you don’t have a powerful passport, legal travel routes – as they exist – are racist and discriminatory. This is true even for the elite of many African countries, who have no plan to stay here.

In September, I was at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Sweden. Some African journalists could not attend because they were denied visas, while others could barely participate because of visa restrictions. These are common and constant constraints for Africans in all industries. 

For their part, European politicians talk about tackling the business model of smugglers. But this argument does not make sense. Someone once described migration routes to me as being like balloons: when one is squeezed, another will expand.

Since the Central Mediterranean became harder to cross, the so-called Atlantic sea route to Europe has gained in popularity. Nearly 7,000 people have died or gone missing attempting it since 2021, according to Spanish NGO Walking Borders. Their boats can end up floating at sea for months, as everyone on board dies one by one of thirst and hunger. Some, filled with corpses, wash ashore in the Caribbean and Brazil.

Smugglers are fulfilling a need. Without safe and legal routes available, people trying to move say they have no other choice. And the more difficult our borders become to cross, the more the smuggling industry is fuelled. 

**

Meanwhile – and this point is very important – EU money is arguably destabilising the region. The EU Trust Fund for Africa has seen 5 billion euro pledged to it since 2016, effectively to try and stop migration from 26 African countries. It has been widely criticised for its lack of transparency and how much is being spent on securitisation, oppressing people further. 

My book details the funding empowering militias in Libya. Another example took place in neighbouring Sudan, where EU anti-migration money is said to have emboldened the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group which has now gone to war, resulting in the displacement of nearly 6 million. Many of those I met during a reporting trip to Tunisia in August were Darfuris who said they are escaping a new genocide perpetrated by the RSF, and are now trying to reach Europe too. 

In Tunisia, president Kais Saied, accused of growing authoritarianism, is benefiting from European efforts to court him and potentially large sums of EU money. Black Africans were evicted from their homes and fired from their jobs after comments he made in February. Since then, some have been rounded up and dumped in the desert, where they were left to die. Could Tunisia become the new Libya? We are waiting to see.

I talk all the time to EU staff who anonymously say they are desperately unhappy with the current situation on Europe’s borders. They say stopping migration is being prioritised above all else, and without proper regard for human rights principles. Right now, I am speaking for them too.

The annual budget for Frontex has increased to 845 million euros, from 142 million in 2015. Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri stepped down last year over concerns the agency is not respecting human rights, but that does not seem to have prompted a real reckoning regarding how Frontex operates. I know this is something the Ombudsman has been actively challenging.

UN agencies, which receive EU funding, also play a role. While EU officials call the UN’s presence a safeguard, I’ve talked to a lot of unhappy UN staff who say they are being used to whitewash a system of brutal human rights abuses in Libya, for example. They say they cannot speak honestly about the effects of EU policy, or their own ineffectiveness and lack of oversight, because their leadership want to keep receiving EU funding.

Anonymously, UN staff worry about their own lack of accountability. Refugees are also frightened to report bad experiences with the UN, because they feel so vulnerable to retaliation.

In general – and this is probably the most important thing I will say in this whole speech – I’m always surprised by how few people with direct experience of forced or irregular migration are being included in conversations about it at all levels – this disconnect, I believe, is incredibly problematic. Their voices need to be listened to – both their experiences and their policy recommendations. That is the only way to understand what’s really happening, and by opening and maintaining lines of communication, you might be surprised by what you find out.

Speaking to refugees was how I first heard about allegations of corruption within the UNHCR refugee resettlement scheme in Sudan, for example, with staff accused of taking bribes of tens of thousands of dollars to facilitate legal resettlement. Following my investigation, and an internal probe, one staff member was found guilty of soliciting bribes and abusing power, though refugees complained that corruption continued. That is just one case underlining how little faith in the existing systems there is among refugees – something you must understand if you are involved in migration policy today.

As a former UN investigator told me, when there is huge demand and small supply there is always scope for exploitation. And as we all know, the numbers of refugee resettlement spaces offered by Western countries are woefully inadequate. According to UNHCR, less than 40,000 refugees were resettled to safe countries in 2021, for example – though there were more than 27 million refugees worldwide. 

***

One question I keep asking myself is how has the scale of abuses and mass death on Europe’s borders been allowed to happen?

Dehumanisation is taking place and we are all responsible.

We urgently need to start questioning our use of language. Refugee is a legal status, and migrant is a descriptor, but these are people like everyone else, with hopes, dreams, and families who love them.

When you hear the term “migration management” do you equate it with torture or indefinite detention?

What about the term “economic migrant”? For many people, poverty is a threat to life. It can mean starvation, as I saw in northern Uganda during the early covid lockdowns. It might mean watching family members die for other preventable reasons, all the time. Today, life expectancy for people in Sub-Saharan Africa is around 20 years less than it is for those in Europe. 

The word “migrant” is being used to target and dehumanise a particular group of people – those without strong passports, who almost always have black or brown skin. Otherwise why would we immediately launch a rescue for a sinking ship filled with “tourists”, but not one with “migrants” on board? That’s where the hypocrisy comes in. In June 2020, the European Parliament passed a resolution saying “black lives matter.” But what about the mass deaths of black people on Europe’s borders? 

Without migration, projections say that the EU’s population will fall from 453 million in 2026 to 320 million by the end of the century. Economists and other analysts say the EU needs migration. So why torture those who are enthusiastic to come and make a life here? Why inflict trauma they will live with forever, if they are lucky enough to survive the journey in the first place?

**

Over previous years, when I spoke to Africans who wanted to reach Europe, they had the idea of Europe as a place where human rights are respected. But that image is being shattered. 

And abusive policies are contagious. They are being picked up and expanded on across the West, and used by dictators and autocrats in other regions as justification too. 

The speaker after me was originally supposed to be the European Commission Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life. In 2019, when Ursula von der Leyen was asked to justify this job title, she said one of our founding principles is that everybody has the same rights.

But my reporting shows this is not true.

It seems to me that we are at a pivotal point in European history and we need to ask more existential questions. Like what kind of Europe do we want to live in? Is it one, as an August New York Times front page said, where mass drowning has been normalised? Do we still believe in human rights for everyone? And what are the longterm ramifications of the harms already done?

We need to ask how future generations will judge us? Are we the people who reacted to a global inequality crisis by brutalising the most vulnerable and condoning their murder? Some people tell me they have lost hope that anything will change, but hope should not be a precondition to doing the right thing. You can stand on the right side of history even if you are hopeless.

So, to summarise: 

There are many people travelling for different reasons. They’re fleeing wars, dictatorships, crushing poverty, climate change, corruption, and trying to be reunited with family members. They often come from countries that have been long exploited by Europe.

What the people I speak to want is a safe and dignified existence. Instead, they are facing death, torture, and other kinds of abuse on our borders in ways that have implicated European officials and the European public in alleged crimes against humanity. 

And now compare the 1.3 million people who claimed asylum in the EU in 2015, the year of the so-called migrant crisis, with the more than 4 million Ukrainians we have accepted with open arms. The reception for Ukrainian refugees showed us that a more empathetic policy has been possible all along, but so far that has not been extended to people from other regions. 

Instead, 34 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we are erecting more barriers than ever. 

Thank you for listening.

‘En de vierde keer zonken we’ (Dutch), publishing August 28, 2023, with Nieuw Amsterdam

‘E La Quarta Volta Siamo Annegati’ (Italian), publishing September 12, 2023, with Bollati Boringhieri

Electric Picnic (Mindfield, Manifesto stage), September 2, 2023

Pordenonelegge, Pordenone, September 17, 2023, 5pm

Crossing Border festival, The Hague, November 4, 2023

Folkestone Book Festival, November 26, 2023, 4pm

Logan Nonfiction & the Strand Presents: Sally Hayden + Malachy Browne, April 27, 7pm EDT

Sally Hayden on the world’s deadliest migration route, Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh, 7pm, April 28

Aye Write festival, Glasgow, 6.30pm, May 15, Mitchell Library

International Literature Festival, Dublin, 6pm, May 28

Sally Hayden talks to Matthew d’Ancona, Hay Festival, 4pm, June 3

Early praise:

“The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read. Every citizen of the European Union has not only a right, but also a responsibility, to learn about the realities described in this book. I hope that Sally Hayden’s work can help to begin a radically new and overdue discussion about Europe’s approach to migration and borders” — Sally Rooney

“‘I had stumbled on a human rights disaster of epic proportions,’ writes Sally Hayden in the prologue of her remarkable story of the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe. Contacted blind, on the phone, by a desperate young man locked in a brutal refugee camp in Libya, Hayden embarked on a years-long effort to document the courage, humor, kindness, and resilience of ordinary people trapped by circumstance, and the tragic moral failure of the west to help them. The refugee who sent her the first Facebook message in 2018 had no way to know it, but he had reached exactly the right person. Read her book.” — Mark Bowden, author of ‘Black Hawk Down’

“This vivid chronicle of the lives and dreams of those who risk all the cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe may make you cry, but it should make you angry. It is not just a blistering rebuke to those who torture, rape and imprison, but to the rest of us, who turn a blind eye.” — Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News

“This is a brilliant book, powerful and emotional – Sally Hayden is a superb journalist and through her incredible courage and eyewitness testimonies, paints a compelling picture of the poignant and horrific lives endured by so many refugees and migrants. A must read for anyone with a conscience”. — Miriam O’Callaghan, presenter RTE Prime Time

“One of the most important testaments of this awful time in life’s history. It is both heartbreaking and stoic. I cry reading any page of it. Sally Hayden is a young and brilliant journalist.” — Edna O’Brien

“Kafka retold… Read this great book shedding light on a monstrous crime.” — John Sweeney, author of ‘Hunting Ghislaine’

“My Fourth Time, We Drowned is compassionate, brave, enraging, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. Hayden exposes the truth about years of grotesque abuse committed against some of the world’s most  vulnerable people in all of our names. After this, none of us can say we didn’t know.” — Oliver Bullough, author of ‘Moneyland’

“Sally Hayden’s heart-stopping account of the plight of contemporary refugees is both a compelling epic and an intimate encounter with exact personal experience. She achieves what all great writing hopes to do — the restoration of humanity to those who have been deprived of it. This is a vital book for anyone who wants to feel what it means to be human in the 21st century.” — Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times columnist and Orwell Prize winner

“Irish journalist Sally Hayden describes one of the great tragedies of our era, the story of the thousands of refugees bent on starting new lives in the West, who instead spend years rotting in Sudanese refugee camps, trapped in Libyan prisons, clinging to sinking dinghies in the Mediterranean. Her harrowing portrait captures the voices of the Eritreans, Somalis, Ethiopians, Gambians and Sierra Leoneans caught up in this pitiless modern slave trade, who constantly remind us that the desire to better yourself is the most fundamental of human impulses.  This is a remarkable and important book.” — Michela Wrong, author of ‘Do Not Disturb’

“‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’ is a veritable masterclass in journalism. Unexpectedly finding herself a journalistic agony aunt for migrants being tortured, starved and raped inside horrific Libyan detention centres, Sally Hayden weaves together their WhatsApp and Facebook messages to produce the most riveting, detailed and damning account ever written on the deadliest of migration routes” — Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent Sunday Times

“‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’ is, quite simply, an unexpected tour de force, and its author, Sally Hayden, deserves critical acclaim and a wide readership for her achievement. A book about African migrants to Europe becoming trapped in Libyan hellholes while fleeing repression and poverty at home does not, at first glance, make for a promising read. But Sally Hayden, a very gifted writer as much as she is an intrepid and dogged reporter, has done precisely that. I found this book unputdownable. I have no doubt that whatever else she goes on to write about in the future, Sally Hayden will leave some of her words etched into our hearts and our souls.” — Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker staff writer

Reviews:

“Intrepidly reported and vividly written, this sobering account shines a spotlight on an underreported tragedy.” — Publishers Weekly

“The narrative is consistently harrowing, revealing the complexities within a global crisis that lacks an easy solution, especially as the numbers of refugees mount. An important contribution to the literature of forced immigration and humanitarian crises.” —Kirkus (Starred Review)

“Journalism of the most urgent kind” — The Financial Times

“There is perhaps no better testament to the racist double standard at the core of European border policy than the accounts of refugees and migrants collected in a new book by journalist Sally Hayden”  — The Intercept

“A meticulous account of the horrifying North African refugee crisis . . . Painstaking details and a roundabout timeline make My Fourth Time, We Drowned informative, while the testimonies from the refugees themselves pulse with difficult truths that will shock (and maybe mobilize) conscientious citizens across the globe.’ — Foreword Reviews

“A brilliant, layered testament”  — The Irish Independent

“A powerfully written amalgamation of narrative nonfiction and investigative journalism, My Fourth Time We Drowned is compelling reading for a wide audience.”  — Mail & Guardian

“A brilliant, unparalleled investigation of one of the most underreported scandals and monstrous crimes of our time.” — Responsible Statecraft

Media:

’12 debut Irish writers to look out for in 2022′, the Irish Times; ‘Books to look out for in 2022’, the Irish Times; ‘The hottest books of 2022’, the Irish Independent

Included on the Kirkus list of the 20 best books publishing in the US in March

Preorder (preordering makes a big difference in terms of the overall reach of the book):

Audiobook

North America:

US

Chapters, Canada

UK:

Bookshop.org

Waterstones

WH Smith

Foyles

Lighthouse Bookshop

Ireland:

Kenny’s

Books Upstairs

Dubray Books

O’Mahony’s

Many countries worldwide:

Book Depository

Amazon

Europe:

Germany

Sweden

The Netherlands

Switzerland

Australasia:

Australia

Torquay Books, Australia

The Nile, Australia

New Zealand

Asia:

Taiwan

Japan

Events

March 28, 7pm (UK time), Waterstones Bristol (with Matthieu Aikins and Jenny Lacey)

April 7, 1pm (Irish time), online conversation, UCD (with Bulelani M’faco, Jack Pope and Sinéad Gibney)

April 29, 7pm (ET), Logan Nonfiction & the Strand Presents: Sally Hayden + Malachy Browne (online)

‘”Cruel” trafficker accused of torturing refugees found guilty in Ethiopia’, the Guardian, Apr 30, 2021

Event with German newspaper Taz, Apr 24, 2021

‘Denmark is wrong. Syria is anything but safe for returning refugees’, the Irish Times, Apr 24, 2021

An Ebola preparedness workshop on the Guinea-Sierra Leone border

‘Sierra Leone prepares for another Ebola outbreak’, the Irish Times, April 19, 2021

‘”No other home”: Refugees in Kenya camps devastated over closure’, Al Jazeera, Apr 5, 2021

‘”I miss school”: 800m children still not fully back in classes’, the Guardian, Apr 5, 2021

My reporting mentioned in this extract from Ty McCormick’s new book, Mar 30, 2021

‘Families still sleeping outside week after Freetown’s devastating fire’, the Irish Times, Mar 30, 2021

A boat sails away from Dublin island, Sierra Leone

, the Irish Times, Mar 29, 2021

Radio piece on Sierra Leonean women trafficked to the Middle East, RTE World Report, Radio One, Mar 28, 2021 (programme starts at 12.44)

A boy carries scrap metal away from the aftermath of the fire at Susan’s Bay, Freetown

‘”I have nothing”: Fire in Freetown slum displaces thousands’, the Irish Times, Mar 25, 2021

Guardian’s photo hightlights of the day, March 25, 2021.

‘Medical charity staff witness “horrific” executions in Tigray’, the Irish Times, Mar 25, 2021

‘Outcry over election-related abductions in Uganda’, the Irish Times, Mar 24, 2021

Sierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio gets his first vaccine dose as the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme begins

‘People trafficking: “They were killers. They have raped many women”’, the Irish Times, Mar 13, 2021

‘A major anti-Kony verdict is no relief’, Foreign Policy, Mar 9, 2021

‘How Did One of North Africa’s Biggest Human Traffickers Escape Prison?’, VICE, Feb 23, 2021

A radio report on the Dominic Ongwen ICC verdict, World Report, RTE Radio One, Feb 7, 2021 (programme starts from 12.50)

Men in Dominic Ongwen’s home village watch the verdict in his International Criminal Court trial on February 4, 2021

‘Lukodi massacre: “They should pay us because we lost so many people”’, the Irish Times, Feb 5, 2021

Boys in Dominic Ongwen’s home village of Coorom listen as the ICC verdict is broadcast on a single radio set

‘In Dominic Ongwen’s home village, many see a victim more than a perpetrator’, the Irish Times, Feb 4, 2021

‘Museveni takes victory lap after winning Uganda’s presidential race’, the Irish Times, Jan 21, 2021

‘Uganda’s internet-less election may be the most surveilled ever’, the Irish Times, Jan 19, 2021

‘Ugandan election: Museveni wins sixth term as opposition leader put under “house arrest”‘, the Irish Times, Jan 17, 2021

Supporters of Yoweri Museveni celebrate his re-election as president of Uganda

‘Young Ugandans Want Change From the Only President They’ve Ever Known’, VICE, Jan 15, 2021

Soldiers patrol close to Bobi Wine’s house on the day of Uganda’s election results, as the opposition leader is placed under house arrest

Reporting on the Ugandan presidential election, Morning Ireland, RTE Radio One, Jan 14, 2021

Ugandans queue in Makere, on the outskirts of Kampala, to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections

Photos from Uganda’s presidential and parliamentary election.

‘Ugandans choose between pop singer and longtime leader in tense election’, the Irish Times, Jan 14, 2021

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine, and his wife, Barbie, leave his home ahead of voting

‘Coronavirus used as political tool in Uganda as healthcare needs neglected’, J4T/Irish Times, Jan 12, 2021

In the UCD alumni magazine.

‘Uganda’s Revolution Will Be Livestreamed’, VICE, January 11, 2021

‘Libya: coronavirus has deadly impact on life-saving evacuations’, the Irish Times, Jan 1, 2021

Irish Times correspondents pick their moment of the year, World View podcast, Dec 23, 2020

‘Kony’s children: The former child soldiers of Uganda’, the Irish Times, Nov 28, 2020

Speaking at Disruption Lab conference, ‘Borders of Fear’, in Berlin, Nov 27-28

Interview in Il Mitte, Nov 14, 2020

UCD talk, Nov 12, 2020

Human smugglers go on trial in Ethiopia, World Report, RTE Radio One, Nov 8, 2020 (programme starts at 11.40)

‘UN peacekeepers withdraw from South Sudan civilian protection sites’, the Irish Times, Oct 29, 2020

‘The Irish Times claims largest number of entries on journalism awards shortlist’, Oct 20, 2020

‘Libyan refugees: “We are in hell and darkness”‘, Atmos, Oct 9, 2020

Radio piece on child marriage rising during the pandemic, RTE World Report, Oct 4, 2020 (programme starts about 12 mins in)

‘Westlife’s fans across Africa: “I listen to them every day”‘, the Irish Times Magazine, Sept 26, 2020

A coronavirus burial in Gulu, northern Uganda

‘”We are not here for ceremony”: The indignity of a coronavirus burial’, the Irish Times, Sept 22, 2020 (more photos up here)

‘Evictions and hunger: life in Kampala as Covid cases surge’, the Irish Times, Sept 21, 2020

UCD Alumni Award for Law, 2020.

Radio piece on an increase in poaching in Uganda’s national parks, World Report, RTE Radio One, Aug 30, 2020 (programme from around 12 minutes in)

‘Museveni deploys day of prayer in fight against coronavirus’, the Irish Times, Aug 30, 2020

The ferry port at Murchison Falls, Uganda’s biggest national park

‘”They will not open the airports”: Covid-19’s heavy toll on Ugandan tourism’, the Irish Times, Aug 20, 2020

‘Hundreds of children returned to Libya from Mediterranean in 2020’, the Irish Times, Aug 14, 2020

Book announcement, The Bookseller, Aug 13, 2020

‘Sudanese refugees protest in Niger desert camp’, the Irish Times, Aug 6, 2020

‘Calls for inquiry after migrants shot dead after being captured by Libyan coast guard’, the Irish Times, July 29, 2020

On RTE Drivetime with a report about Irish Aid for refugees in Uganda, RTE Radio One, July 28, 2020

‘Lockdown effort to curb drinking in Uganda has mixed results’, the Irish Times, July 28, 2020

‘Ugandan president will ‘crush’ protesters ahead of election’, the Irish Times, July 23, 2020

On Des’s Island Discs, RTE Radio One, July 22, 2020

‘Body floating for weeks in Mediterranean highlights ongoing drownings’, the Irish Times, July 18, 2020

‘In African villages, coronavirus sparks fears of a spike in malaria deaths’, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, July 15, 2020 (also in Spanish on El Pais)

‘Internet provides vital connection for Africa’s LGBT communities’, the Irish Times, July 15, 2020

On RTE World Report, talking about confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa topping half a million, RTE Radio One, July 12, 2020 (programme starts around 12 minutes in)

‘With schools closed, child labour on the rise in lockdown Uganda’, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, July 8, 2020

‘Refugee victims of Tajoura bombing still lie in unmarked graves one year on’, the Guardian, July 3, 2020

On the ‘Confronting Coronavirus’ podcast, the Irish Times, July 2, 2020