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My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route
The Western world has turned its back on migrants, leaving them to cope with one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in history.
In 2018, Sally Hayden received a message on Facebook: “Hi sister Sally, we need your help.” It was from an Eritrean refugee who had been held in a Libyan detention center for months, locked in one big hall with scant meals. Now, Tripoli was crumbling in a scrimmage between warring factions, and the refugees remained stuck, defenseless, with only one hope: contacting her.
With that begins Hayden’s staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa: from brutal, vindictive Libyan guards to unexpected acts of kindness; the frustration of visiting aid workers; fake marriages between detainees; the strain on real marriages; and the phenomenon of some refugees becoming oppressors after entering into Faustian bargains with their captors. With unprecedented contact with dozens of people currently inside Libyan detention centers, My Fourth Time, We Drowned will, for the first time, detail these stories.
In the future, people will regard this pivotal period with fascination and horror. The failure of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations represents a collective abdication of international standards that will echo throughout history. But most importantly, this book will highlight the resilience of humans: how refugees and migrants locked up for years fall in love, support each other through the hardest times and carry out small acts of resistance in order to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.
In 2018, Sally Hayden received a message on Facebook: “Hi sister Sally, we need your help.” It was from an Eritrean refugee who had been held in a Libyan detention center for months, locked in one big hall with scant meals. Now, Tripoli was crumbling in a scrimmage between warring factions, and the refugees remained stuck, defenseless, with only one hope: contacting her.
With that begins Hayden’s staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa: from brutal, vindictive Libyan guards to unexpected acts of kindness; the frustration of visiting aid workers; fake marriages between detainees; the strain on real marriages; and the phenomenon of some refugees becoming oppressors after entering into Faustian bargains with their captors. With unprecedented contact with dozens of people currently inside Libyan detention centers, My Fourth Time, We Drowned will, for the first time, detail these stories.
In the future, people will regard this pivotal period with fascination and horror. The failure of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations represents a collective abdication of international standards that will echo throughout history. But most importantly, this book will highlight the resilience of humans: how refugees and migrants locked up for years fall in love, support each other through the hardest times and carry out small acts of resistance in order to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2022
362 people are currently reading
5510 people want to read
About the author
Sally Hayden
1 book65 followersSally Hayden is an award-winning journalist and photographer currently focused on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises.
She has worked with VICE, VICE News, CNN International, the Financial Times Magazine, TIME, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, BBC, the Washington Post, the Irish Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, Magnum Photos, Channel 4 News, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Maclean’s, the Sunday Times, Newsweek, RTE, ELLE, Marie Claire, ZEIT Online, Voice of America, the Independent, the Telegraph, Deutsche Welle, IRIN, the New Statesman, the New Internationalist, the National, the Huffington Post and ITV News, and had stories and photojournalism republished on six continents by outlets including Pacific Standard, National Geographic, NPR, the Times of India, Euronews, the Christian Science Monitor, Sky News, the Observer, the Globe and Mail, ABC News, Forbes and TeleSUR English, among many others.
HEFAT certified, Sally has reported from countries including Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, France, Germany, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Ireland, the UK, Lebanon, Jordan, DR Congo, Panama, Cambodia, the Gambia, Liberia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the US, Italy, Malta, Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Her writing has been translated into nine languages and she has appeared as a guest on national and international media. She is a member of the Frontline Freelance Register and Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Sally has a law degree from University College Dublin and an MSc in International Politics from Trinity College, Dublin, where her thesis was on post-conflict societies and theories of civil war resolution. She has worked as a trainer at the BBC Academy; a guest lecturer at London College of Communication, New York University, Princeton, TU Dublin and UCD; and volunteered as a mentor for the Refugee Journalism Project.
She has worked with VICE, VICE News, CNN International, the Financial Times Magazine, TIME, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, BBC, the Washington Post, the Irish Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, Magnum Photos, Channel 4 News, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Maclean’s, the Sunday Times, Newsweek, RTE, ELLE, Marie Claire, ZEIT Online, Voice of America, the Independent, the Telegraph, Deutsche Welle, IRIN, the New Statesman, the New Internationalist, the National, the Huffington Post and ITV News, and had stories and photojournalism republished on six continents by outlets including Pacific Standard, National Geographic, NPR, the Times of India, Euronews, the Christian Science Monitor, Sky News, the Observer, the Globe and Mail, ABC News, Forbes and TeleSUR English, among many others.
HEFAT certified, Sally has reported from countries including Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, France, Germany, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Ireland, the UK, Lebanon, Jordan, DR Congo, Panama, Cambodia, the Gambia, Liberia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the US, Italy, Malta, Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Her writing has been translated into nine languages and she has appeared as a guest on national and international media. She is a member of the Frontline Freelance Register and Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Sally has a law degree from University College Dublin and an MSc in International Politics from Trinity College, Dublin, where her thesis was on post-conflict societies and theories of civil war resolution. She has worked as a trainer at the BBC Academy; a guest lecturer at London College of Communication, New York University, Princeton, TU Dublin and UCD; and volunteered as a mentor for the Refugee Journalism Project.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 246 reviews
April 28, 2022
I can’t remember the last time I read quite so astonishing and essential a book. I will be pressing it into the hands of many, particularly here in Europe. It is bleak and infuriating and heartbreaking and it must be read.
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August 10, 2023Everyone should read this book. It's so easy to gloss over headlines of suffering elsewhere in the world, assuming the UN will fix things. What happens when the UN and the EU are the problem? Who solves that? (Or the USA or any major Western power?)
I consider myself intelligent. But I'm also clearly naively idealistic and had no idea such a monumental humanitarian crisis was allowed to happen–some would say even encouraged to happen–by so-called developed nations. This month's reading so far has been harrowing (a Holocaust survivor's story and now the biggest humanitarian crisis since WWII), but given our privileged bubble, we have to read these books to see, to know, to act.
I consider myself intelligent. But I'm also clearly naively idealistic and had no idea such a monumental humanitarian crisis was allowed to happen–some would say even encouraged to happen–by so-called developed nations. This month's reading so far has been harrowing (a Holocaust survivor's story and now the biggest humanitarian crisis since WWII), but given our privileged bubble, we have to read these books to see, to know, to act.
July 7, 2024
In Britain when politicians talk about the migrant crisis they usually mean the impact migrants might have on our safe comfortable lives, not the crises which have led to thousands of innocent people fleeing their homes and risking their lives.
In this book journalist Sally Hayden follows the migrants journeys, focusing on the route to Europe through Libya. Migrants fleeing oppressive regimes in places like Eritrea are smuggled at great financial and personal cost to Libya, where they wait (sometimes for years) in detention camps before risking their lives on flimsy boats to mainland Europe.
Many are intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, trained and funded by the EU, who seem practically indistinguishable from the people smugglers. They are returned to Libya where they are once again at the mercy of detention camps. These camps, whether official or operated by smugglers, are places neglect, starvation, extortion, rape, torture and executions. Parallels are drawn with WW2 concentration camps.
It’s a truly disturbing book, but an important one. I don’t have the solution, I’m just trying to educate myself. The author maintains her journalistic independence throughout, reporting without proposing solutions, although I would have been interested to hear her views. For example could the billions spent trying to block migrants be used differently to address the root causes.
In this book journalist Sally Hayden follows the migrants journeys, focusing on the route to Europe through Libya. Migrants fleeing oppressive regimes in places like Eritrea are smuggled at great financial and personal cost to Libya, where they wait (sometimes for years) in detention camps before risking their lives on flimsy boats to mainland Europe.
Many are intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, trained and funded by the EU, who seem practically indistinguishable from the people smugglers. They are returned to Libya where they are once again at the mercy of detention camps. These camps, whether official or operated by smugglers, are places neglect, starvation, extortion, rape, torture and executions. Parallels are drawn with WW2 concentration camps.
It’s a truly disturbing book, but an important one. I don’t have the solution, I’m just trying to educate myself. The author maintains her journalistic independence throughout, reporting without proposing solutions, although I would have been interested to hear her views. For example could the billions spent trying to block migrants be used differently to address the root causes.
August 27, 2024
My Fourth Time, We Drowned
This book is largely about the migrant crisis in Europe and the detention centers in Libya.
Most of the migrants came from northern African countries from Sierra Lone and Senegal to Sudan to Eritrea. Most migrants experienced horrifying journeys including ransoms before they even made it to Libya, the last stage before crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. Libya is where it gets worse for many. Most of the news reporting was focused on the drownings in the Mediterranean but this book tells you what happened earlier in the journey.
Less than ten percent of migrants in the crisis made it to Europe. More than twice as many died than made it - either from capsizing in the Mediterranean or more likely from torture and starvation in Libya or the treacherous desert crossings. There were also many other horrific outcomes short of death.
This book is composed of vignettes, from the author's years of reporting. The author does an excellent job of providing context on the migrants' stories and the crisis overall. For example Libya was in the middle of a civil war while the EU was paying hundreds of millions of dollars to Libya - and their newly funded Coast Guard - to stop the migrants from making it to Europe. The author takes great umbrage that the EU was responsible, albeit indirectly, for the torture of so many migrants.
What struck me most about the stories, and yes they are quite traumatic, were the systematic ransom schemes that the migrants and their unwitting families were subjected to. On average more than ten thousand dollars was required to avoid execution. These are some of the poorest countries on earth, where are people finding the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars?
And who are the migrants? By and large they are people who had dreams and aspirations and did not see much of a future in their country. They have access to social media and are acutely aware of how wealthy the western world is. Some migrants are educated and almost all the migrants are young adults. But it is also true that all were ignorant of the true scale of the dangers ahead in their journey. Many migrants were women many of whom were subjected to unspeakable horrors. But it seems that most of those who were willing to talk to the author were male.
But it is important to point out that most of the migrants featured in the story were not refugees. But most ended up in brutal detention conditions in Libya nonetheless. For many of them, their families didn't know ahead of time that they were leaving. They just wanted a better life and they found a smuggler that promised them a way into Europe. Unfortunately the smugglers and the pipeline took advantage of them every step of the way. But even when given a choice to go back home, after all the trauma, most migrants chose to risk their lives again and then crossing the Mediterranean where they were at serious risk of drowning or capture by the Libyan Coast Guard.
I am torn by the stories as I do not support this type of immigration. There are no winners. Even those few who made it successfully across the Mediterranean to Italy are traumatized for life.
For most of the migrants their lives back home were not in jeopardy and some had modest financial means. This depiction seems similar to what is happening in Central America and the Southern border.
I don't want to trivialize a deeply complex problem, but it seems the EU and USA must do a better job in the origin countries to explain that borders are closed to this type of immigration and that migrants are likely to die on their journey. Expansion of green cards would be a good idea to the more disadvantaged countries. Western economies need significant immigration in order to thrive and history has shown nations who become insular will eventually decline.
But human smuggling and illegal immigration are not solutions and must be better discouraged. In many cases, racism is the basis for the vitriol leveled at illegal immigrants. But at a macro level it is also illogical to ignore it. We need to make sure we differentiate between humanitarian cases and those migrants who just want a better life. The UN agencies featured in this book were vilified for telling the migrants this same thing. Europe doesn't want you, go make a life for yourself back home. Apply for a green card. A harsh message but largely true.
I would be remiss not to mention Io Capitano. It is a 2023 Oscar nominated film about a migrant's perilous journey from Senegal to Libya and on to Italy. The story largely meshes with the reporting in this book. I was captivated by this compelling film. It is a good companion piece to this book.
4 stars. Highly recommended and thought provoking.
This book is largely about the migrant crisis in Europe and the detention centers in Libya.
Most of the migrants came from northern African countries from Sierra Lone and Senegal to Sudan to Eritrea. Most migrants experienced horrifying journeys including ransoms before they even made it to Libya, the last stage before crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. Libya is where it gets worse for many. Most of the news reporting was focused on the drownings in the Mediterranean but this book tells you what happened earlier in the journey.
Less than ten percent of migrants in the crisis made it to Europe. More than twice as many died than made it - either from capsizing in the Mediterranean or more likely from torture and starvation in Libya or the treacherous desert crossings. There were also many other horrific outcomes short of death.
This book is composed of vignettes, from the author's years of reporting. The author does an excellent job of providing context on the migrants' stories and the crisis overall. For example Libya was in the middle of a civil war while the EU was paying hundreds of millions of dollars to Libya - and their newly funded Coast Guard - to stop the migrants from making it to Europe. The author takes great umbrage that the EU was responsible, albeit indirectly, for the torture of so many migrants.
What struck me most about the stories, and yes they are quite traumatic, were the systematic ransom schemes that the migrants and their unwitting families were subjected to. On average more than ten thousand dollars was required to avoid execution. These are some of the poorest countries on earth, where are people finding the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars?
And who are the migrants? By and large they are people who had dreams and aspirations and did not see much of a future in their country. They have access to social media and are acutely aware of how wealthy the western world is. Some migrants are educated and almost all the migrants are young adults. But it is also true that all were ignorant of the true scale of the dangers ahead in their journey. Many migrants were women many of whom were subjected to unspeakable horrors. But it seems that most of those who were willing to talk to the author were male.
But it is important to point out that most of the migrants featured in the story were not refugees. But most ended up in brutal detention conditions in Libya nonetheless. For many of them, their families didn't know ahead of time that they were leaving. They just wanted a better life and they found a smuggler that promised them a way into Europe. Unfortunately the smugglers and the pipeline took advantage of them every step of the way. But even when given a choice to go back home, after all the trauma, most migrants chose to risk their lives again and then crossing the Mediterranean where they were at serious risk of drowning or capture by the Libyan Coast Guard.
I am torn by the stories as I do not support this type of immigration. There are no winners. Even those few who made it successfully across the Mediterranean to Italy are traumatized for life.
For most of the migrants their lives back home were not in jeopardy and some had modest financial means. This depiction seems similar to what is happening in Central America and the Southern border.
I don't want to trivialize a deeply complex problem, but it seems the EU and USA must do a better job in the origin countries to explain that borders are closed to this type of immigration and that migrants are likely to die on their journey. Expansion of green cards would be a good idea to the more disadvantaged countries. Western economies need significant immigration in order to thrive and history has shown nations who become insular will eventually decline.
But human smuggling and illegal immigration are not solutions and must be better discouraged. In many cases, racism is the basis for the vitriol leveled at illegal immigrants. But at a macro level it is also illogical to ignore it. We need to make sure we differentiate between humanitarian cases and those migrants who just want a better life. The UN agencies featured in this book were vilified for telling the migrants this same thing. Europe doesn't want you, go make a life for yourself back home. Apply for a green card. A harsh message but largely true.
I would be remiss not to mention Io Capitano. It is a 2023 Oscar nominated film about a migrant's perilous journey from Senegal to Libya and on to Italy. The story largely meshes with the reporting in this book. I was captivated by this compelling film. It is a good companion piece to this book.
4 stars. Highly recommended and thought provoking.
September 30, 2023
Beyond bleak
August 6, 2022
Urgent, heartbreaking, well written with context provided in the overall narrative flow of the book, this was not a pleasant read, but a necessary record of the European response to people trying to move from African countries to a better life in Europe.
Hayden introduces her story with her receiving a Facebook message from a Libyan jail in August 2018, going on to briefly describe the situation for refugees/asylum seekers/economic migrants in Libya.
She then starts her story properly with Essey in Eritrea (a country about which I knew nothing apart from its location). He makes his way across Ethiopia and Sudan, to Libya, where he unsuccessfully tries to travel by people smugglers’ dinghy to Europe. Having been stopped by Libyan coastal patrols twice and getting his extended family to pay bribes to get him freed, his family runs out of money and he is imprisoned in Libya.
Hayden uses Essey’s case to discuss the political situation in Libya, the position of the EU in funding Libyan coastguards, so that refugees will not make it to EU waters, where they would have refugee status and the work done by the various UN bodies involved with refugees, partially funded by the EU.
Aside from all this, it was going to Sudan, in 2017, that really made me question which stories we hear about refugees, and how murky the truth can become when the biggest humanitarian organisation filtering them is also constantly angling for donations from states. As a journalist, my job is to elevate voices that may be overlooked, while making efforts to hold powerful individuals, organisations, and governments accountable. The power imbalance between UNHCR's staff, who have the ability to grant refugee status and the accompanying documentation and even transfer people to another state, and refugees, who have fled their countries and often lack legal rights, property, belongings, their family and communities, is one of the largest I can imagine, and therefore ripe for exploitation.
This can be a distressing book to read, for example when it recounts the problem of disposing of dead bodies of Christian refugees from Eritrea, when Muslims will not allow them to be buried in Muslim graveyards (page 276): By early 2019, so many people had died in Zintan that it became a logistical problem. The refrigerated area where the bodies were stored was full, and the local community of Muslims would not allow Christians to be buried in their cemetery. “Administrative reasons.” an aid worker explained to me. 'Having dead people is a burden.”
Hayden’s narrative is interspersed with quotes from text messages she has received, which purposefully break the flow of the story, successfully simulating the fractured nature of how events occurred.
This is powerful political journalism, and needs to be read as such, as she says to Moraes, the chair of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee in 2018:
I explained that I was a journalist, it was not my role to propose exact solutions but I wanted to make sure European politicians were aware of the consequences of what they were doing. Surely someone should be held responsible? Moraes said it was difficult to implement change when public opinion and political will had shifted so far away from empathising. (Page 215)
Hayden introduces her story with her receiving a Facebook message from a Libyan jail in August 2018, going on to briefly describe the situation for refugees/asylum seekers/economic migrants in Libya.
She then starts her story properly with Essey in Eritrea (a country about which I knew nothing apart from its location). He makes his way across Ethiopia and Sudan, to Libya, where he unsuccessfully tries to travel by people smugglers’ dinghy to Europe. Having been stopped by Libyan coastal patrols twice and getting his extended family to pay bribes to get him freed, his family runs out of money and he is imprisoned in Libya.
Hayden uses Essey’s case to discuss the political situation in Libya, the position of the EU in funding Libyan coastguards, so that refugees will not make it to EU waters, where they would have refugee status and the work done by the various UN bodies involved with refugees, partially funded by the EU.
Aside from all this, it was going to Sudan, in 2017, that really made me question which stories we hear about refugees, and how murky the truth can become when the biggest humanitarian organisation filtering them is also constantly angling for donations from states. As a journalist, my job is to elevate voices that may be overlooked, while making efforts to hold powerful individuals, organisations, and governments accountable. The power imbalance between UNHCR's staff, who have the ability to grant refugee status and the accompanying documentation and even transfer people to another state, and refugees, who have fled their countries and often lack legal rights, property, belongings, their family and communities, is one of the largest I can imagine, and therefore ripe for exploitation.
This can be a distressing book to read, for example when it recounts the problem of disposing of dead bodies of Christian refugees from Eritrea, when Muslims will not allow them to be buried in Muslim graveyards (page 276): By early 2019, so many people had died in Zintan that it became a logistical problem. The refrigerated area where the bodies were stored was full, and the local community of Muslims would not allow Christians to be buried in their cemetery. “Administrative reasons.” an aid worker explained to me. 'Having dead people is a burden.”
Hayden’s narrative is interspersed with quotes from text messages she has received, which purposefully break the flow of the story, successfully simulating the fractured nature of how events occurred.
This is powerful political journalism, and needs to be read as such, as she says to Moraes, the chair of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee in 2018:
I explained that I was a journalist, it was not my role to propose exact solutions but I wanted to make sure European politicians were aware of the consequences of what they were doing. Surely someone should be held responsible? Moraes said it was difficult to implement change when public opinion and political will had shifted so far away from empathising. (Page 215)
April 5, 2022
This book is a phenomenal piece of writing and absolutely essential reading. Sally's reporting and retelling of the personal experiences of some of the world's most vulnerable is compelling, heart breaking and so important. If you only read one book this year, read this.
November 3, 2023
Sally Hayden listened, received, replied to people in a desperate situation, without being able to advise or help them directly and yet she did, because she showed that she cared and some of those people were able to persevere and tolerate inhuman conditions because she responded and shared their stories in any way she could without compromising her journalistic ethics.
Here, she methodically shares everything about every detention centre in Libya, where those people trying to escape terrible situations in their home countries, found themselves in an equally violent, abusive, corrupt place and a dangerous pathway blocked due to EU funding that propped up illegal and inefficient groups purporting to assist.
It is a marathon read, but nothing compared to the trauma of those who decided to leave for the sake of their families.
Here, she methodically shares everything about every detention centre in Libya, where those people trying to escape terrible situations in their home countries, found themselves in an equally violent, abusive, corrupt place and a dangerous pathway blocked due to EU funding that propped up illegal and inefficient groups purporting to assist.
It is a marathon read, but nothing compared to the trauma of those who decided to leave for the sake of their families.
September 2, 2024
The author, Sally Hayden, is passionate, emotional, and eloquent as she speaks about the plight of refugees in Libya's detention centers. Unfortunately, although she poses the same question over and over again she does not seem to come to the natural conclusion--there is no room for everyone who are unhappy in their countries to come to Europe. Is this unfair? I guess it would be a really short book if she did that. As far as I can tell, the reason some of her protagonists want to come to Europe is because they don't want to spend their entire lives serving in the military in Eritrea. Tough. Weren't the Eritreans delirious with joy at separating from Ethiopia in our lifetime? What happened? She also paints the entirety of Europe as if it is one monolithic tub of wealth. She skips the entire Cold War period when Russia and the Soviet bloc countries needed to be rescued by Europe and U.S. because their citizens were on the verge of starving to death. She needs to read "To Build a Better World" by Philip Kelikow and Condoleezza Rice. They describe this period in time. Britain, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and probably most of the former Soviet bloc countries were or are teetering to keep their heads above water. You only have to visit some of these countries to see how bad a shape they are in. There is no room for millions of people from other countries to jump on the boat. I suppose she wants to make a living and this is one way to do it. I wish she would find a more useful way to do it--like figure out why these north African countries who are blessed with natural bounty can't figure out how to make their countries work. Is it the West with their sanctions that are doing it? Then let's get rid of the sanctions. Can they not choose the right leaders? We can't take care of that for them. Our history is riddled with examples of how bad that idea is. Is it because they don't have the right people? We can't take care of that either. They really need to figure it out for themselves. The answer definitely is not leaving their country. They need to stay and fix it. Then they wouldn't be in the situation described in this book. The rapes and tortures and smugglers and ransoms and extortions and families' pain and drownings and deaths in the desert avoided. The families could save billions of dollars. Seems like an answer. I think Europe keeps saying that over and over. But someone isn't listening. I guess everyone's making money with this situation. (See pages 172-178)
And after a while, it becomes funny. Faced with being in the middle of a civil war, the refugees and migrants refuse to be evacuated to a safer center even as the UNHCR begs and sends buses. They demand to be evacuated out of Libya and stand firm until they are killed and shot at which point they agree to leave, only to be back with the smugglers. But they do remember to post to social media. How can this world possibly be saved??
And after a while, it becomes funny. Faced with being in the middle of a civil war, the refugees and migrants refuse to be evacuated to a safer center even as the UNHCR begs and sends buses. They demand to be evacuated out of Libya and stand firm until they are killed and shot at which point they agree to leave, only to be back with the smugglers. But they do remember to post to social media. How can this world possibly be saved??
July 21, 2022
The back story to the flimsy boats filled with desperate refugees risking death to reach a haven in Europe. Excellent reporting that relies in part on direct communication with migrants in detention in horrific conditions in Libyan camps. Central to the ongoing catastrophe is the partially EU-funded Libyan coast guard, which intercepts migrant boats and returns them to Libya, lightening the load of refugees actually reaching Europe. Any solution that allows for the return of people to detention centers where crimes against humanity occur routinely occur is abhorrent, but this, apparently, is the realpolitik underlying EU migration policy.
June 2, 2023
4.5 stars
An incredible, heart-wrenching, journalistic look at migration from North Africa to Europe, sparing none of the pain of these people's stories. Hayden's straightforward prose hides nothing, from the awful conditions to the ineffectiveness (to put it kindly) of the UN's aid organizations. Be prepared for everything awful that can happen to a person including torture, rape, and death.
More thoughts in my Booktube Prize vlog, but more people need to read this book, at the very least so we understand the world around us and the horrors that are, in part, inflicted with the money that the West sends to help.
An incredible, heart-wrenching, journalistic look at migration from North Africa to Europe, sparing none of the pain of these people's stories. Hayden's straightforward prose hides nothing, from the awful conditions to the ineffectiveness (to put it kindly) of the UN's aid organizations. Be prepared for everything awful that can happen to a person including torture, rape, and death.
More thoughts in my Booktube Prize vlog, but more people need to read this book, at the very least so we understand the world around us and the horrors that are, in part, inflicted with the money that the West sends to help.
April 2, 2023
I didn’t know about the migration crisis in Africa. This book explains it so well and it’s heartbreaking.
September 10, 2024
The most important book I've read in years. Essential reading for all humans.
September 17, 2023
3,5 ***
Migratie, dit onderwerp is het laatste decennium nooit uit het nieuws geweest.
Dus heel nieuw was het niet, wat er hier in dit boek beschreven wordt.
En toch, nu het hier allemaal zo heel expliciet en goed uitgelegd staat, komt het toch weer binnen.
Hayden beschrijft hier de Afrikaanse migratie via Ethiopische en Libische smokkelroutes, de oversteek van de Middellandse Zee naar hoofdzakelijk Italië. Ook de verdragen die de EU met de Libische kustwacht afgesloten heeft en wat de gevolgen hiervan zijn komen ruim aan bod.
Het is geen verhaal om vrolijk van te worden en het toont nog maar eens aan hoe complex en quasi onoplosbaar dit probleem is.
Waar ik wel nooit bij stil stond was de schimmige rol die de UN Hoge Raad voor Vluchtelingen hier soms speelt. Het lijkt bij momenten meer een instantie die zichzelf (en haar goedbetaalde werknemers) kost wat kost wil in stand houden.
Ook schrijnend zijn de absurd hoge verwachtingen die sommige illegale migranten soms hebben... dan kan het alleen maar tegen vallen.
Akkoorden tussen Libië en EU met betrekking tot terugname van bootvluchtelingen zijn voorbij, heb ik begrepen.
Maar nu gaan dezelfde akkoorden met Tunesië, wat een buurland van Libië is, gesloten worden met waarschijnlijk exact dezelfde resultaten, dat kan je uit dit verhaal al afleiden.
Mooi staaltje van onderzoeksjournalistiek.
Recent in Nederlandse vertaling verschenen.
Migratie, dit onderwerp is het laatste decennium nooit uit het nieuws geweest.
Dus heel nieuw was het niet, wat er hier in dit boek beschreven wordt.
En toch, nu het hier allemaal zo heel expliciet en goed uitgelegd staat, komt het toch weer binnen.
Hayden beschrijft hier de Afrikaanse migratie via Ethiopische en Libische smokkelroutes, de oversteek van de Middellandse Zee naar hoofdzakelijk Italië. Ook de verdragen die de EU met de Libische kustwacht afgesloten heeft en wat de gevolgen hiervan zijn komen ruim aan bod.
Het is geen verhaal om vrolijk van te worden en het toont nog maar eens aan hoe complex en quasi onoplosbaar dit probleem is.
Waar ik wel nooit bij stil stond was de schimmige rol die de UN Hoge Raad voor Vluchtelingen hier soms speelt. Het lijkt bij momenten meer een instantie die zichzelf (en haar goedbetaalde werknemers) kost wat kost wil in stand houden.
Ook schrijnend zijn de absurd hoge verwachtingen die sommige illegale migranten soms hebben... dan kan het alleen maar tegen vallen.
Akkoorden tussen Libië en EU met betrekking tot terugname van bootvluchtelingen zijn voorbij, heb ik begrepen.
Maar nu gaan dezelfde akkoorden met Tunesië, wat een buurland van Libië is, gesloten worden met waarschijnlijk exact dezelfde resultaten, dat kan je uit dit verhaal al afleiden.
Mooi staaltje van onderzoeksjournalistiek.
Recent in Nederlandse vertaling verschenen.
February 10, 2023
An incredibly upsetting and harrowing read but an extremely important one. We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves in order to try and understand events which continue to take place in this world. Sally’s journalism allows an insight into the hell so many people endure in order to seek safety. Crimes against humanity have taken place and the EU is accountable. The level of corruption is overwhelming but it is so important to hear the voices of refugees above this and to advocate for their rights and freedom. All refugees welcome here.
October 16, 2023
Read for the Booktube Prize.
Read
December 3, 2023It feels weird to rate a book like this, so I’m not gonna do that. I do want more people to read it, as the book delves into so many vile human rights violations that refugees suffer, while the world and even organizations that are supposed to help like the UNHCR are watching. The author acknowledges her own privileges and uses her voice to uplift those of the many victims and their stories. This book covers statistical elements and concrete data, as well as actual human stories. I have seen a lot of people calling it repetitive, but the whole thing about human suffering and human right violations is that this happens repetitively. It happens again and again, yet the western world seems to not learn from its mistakes. I think what this book could use is some more structure, but that is also a matter of personal opinion and does not take away from how important this book is.
April 26, 2023
An essential read.
Read
March 2, 2025I can’t rate this book, it’s heartbreaking but a must read.
“How lucky are those of us who have freedom of movement by the chance of our birth.”
“How lucky are those of us who have freedom of movement by the chance of our birth.”
October 30, 2023
I read The Pianist while I was also reading The Fourth Time I Drowned. While both were heavy books, I found these were important to read to honor and understand more of each story and setting: one about the Warsaw ghettos in the 1940s and the other about the Mediterranean refugee migration crisis happening today. Both books provided harrowing accounts of hopelessness, desperation, and survival. The horrors described in Warsaw and Libya show truly the worst in humanity, how people can hold such little regard for human life. I read and processed both books together, drawing parallels and noting differences, so I figured I'd write a joint review on these.
The Fourth Time We Drowned
As somber as the title reads, the book follows the migration journeys taken by so many in hopes of a better future. Sally Hayden shares the stories she learned through a multitude of WhatsApp chats. While Europe is the goal, crossing the Mediterranean often leads to years spent in detention centers with low food, low medical care, high disease rates, and never-ending waits. Oftentimes, Hayden recorded many of her contacts debating between a life condemned to death by boat in chances of making it to Europe, by starvation or disease in detention centers, or by war and violence in their home countries.
Hayden highlighted the atrocious crimes committed by traffickers and detention "guards", as well as the hundreds of lives lost in the Mediterranean at a time. These events occur so publicly, as modern technology are quick to spread news and photos, yet we move so slow (if at all) to rectify these situations.
What does it look like to act? What does it look like to change immigration policies and extend more opportunities for migration? I think often of an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum in DC that shows the unused American visa spots that could have been allotted to German and Polish Jews before WWII. I think of what immigration did to my family, across multiple countries on both sides, bringing chances for opportunities where there may previously have been none. There's a lot more I want to learn about immigration, especially regarding the "who" and "why" in the US, but I'll save those thoughts for whatever book I read next on this.
The Pianist:
I first watched the movie for this, which I also highly recommend, but even so, this book was a must-read. Szpilman toed the line with death so so so closely for four years. And he grew too familiar with death, among strangers on the street, in his family, and most of his friends, community, and city. He survived, out of forced resilience, and his story is one to be honored and remembered. The 75th anniversary edition also shares diary entries from the German soldier who helped Szpilman in his final days before Germany's retreat from Poland. Wilm Hosenfeld's entries ring true even today, in light of the devastation happening in Gaza, except instead with the "appalling mass murder" of Palestinians today:
The Fourth Time We Drowned
As somber as the title reads, the book follows the migration journeys taken by so many in hopes of a better future. Sally Hayden shares the stories she learned through a multitude of WhatsApp chats. While Europe is the goal, crossing the Mediterranean often leads to years spent in detention centers with low food, low medical care, high disease rates, and never-ending waits. Oftentimes, Hayden recorded many of her contacts debating between a life condemned to death by boat in chances of making it to Europe, by starvation or disease in detention centers, or by war and violence in their home countries.
Hayden highlighted the atrocious crimes committed by traffickers and detention "guards", as well as the hundreds of lives lost in the Mediterranean at a time. These events occur so publicly, as modern technology are quick to spread news and photos, yet we move so slow (if at all) to rectify these situations.
What does it look like to act? What does it look like to change immigration policies and extend more opportunities for migration? I think often of an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum in DC that shows the unused American visa spots that could have been allotted to German and Polish Jews before WWII. I think of what immigration did to my family, across multiple countries on both sides, bringing chances for opportunities where there may previously have been none. There's a lot more I want to learn about immigration, especially regarding the "who" and "why" in the US, but I'll save those thoughts for whatever book I read next on this.
The Pianist:
I first watched the movie for this, which I also highly recommend, but even so, this book was a must-read. Szpilman toed the line with death so so so closely for four years. And he grew too familiar with death, among strangers on the street, in his family, and most of his friends, community, and city. He survived, out of forced resilience, and his story is one to be honored and remembered. The 75th anniversary edition also shares diary entries from the German soldier who helped Szpilman in his final days before Germany's retreat from Poland. Wilm Hosenfeld's entries ring true even today, in light of the devastation happening in Gaza, except instead with the "appalling mass murder" of Palestinians today:
"Innumerable Jews have been killed like that, for no reason, senselessly. It is beyond understanding. Now the last remnants of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto are being exterminated... These brutes think we shall win the war that way. But we have lost the war with this appalling mass murder of the Jews. We have brought shame upon ourselves that cannot be wiped out; it is a curse that cannot be lifted. We deserve no mercy; we are all guilty ..."
March 11, 2023
My reading of this coincided with all of the recent news in the UK about the Tory government's renewed attempts to stop small boats of migrants crossing the Channel from Europe. The book was already on my radar following it winning the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2022, and after reading the impressive The Naked Don't Fear the Water: A Journey Through the Refugee Underground last year.
This book also takes a journalistic approach, however Sally Hayden's book is more rooted in her print journalism background with the sections in her book based on trips to various countries in Africa where the migrants she meets originate from. The book opens in Libya, where we learn of the horrific conditions migrants are subjected to - in a country which is embroiled in a Civil War which has resulted in a dangerous and lawless society. Hayden's research is meticulous, and she encounters (via WhatsApp and then often later in person) many different individuals with similar (but no less important) stories of fleeing war and poverty to then be met with starvation and torture.
It probably goes without saying that this book is pretty hard going at times. But that doesn't stop it from being essential reading and in my view it is a deserved winner of all of the prizes it has received.
This book also takes a journalistic approach, however Sally Hayden's book is more rooted in her print journalism background with the sections in her book based on trips to various countries in Africa where the migrants she meets originate from. The book opens in Libya, where we learn of the horrific conditions migrants are subjected to - in a country which is embroiled in a Civil War which has resulted in a dangerous and lawless society. Hayden's research is meticulous, and she encounters (via WhatsApp and then often later in person) many different individuals with similar (but no less important) stories of fleeing war and poverty to then be met with starvation and torture.
It probably goes without saying that this book is pretty hard going at times. But that doesn't stop it from being essential reading and in my view it is a deserved winner of all of the prizes it has received.
October 26, 2024
This book is both remarkable and vital. Most national and European politicians prefer refugees as a sort of abstract, amorphous concept to either be demonised or ignored. Sally Hayden brings their painful and very human stories into sharp relief, exposing serious institutional failure, racism and human rights abuses in the process.
Hayden’s reporting is vast yet so personal - she covers refugees from many nations, all all linked via the horrific human rights situation in Libya. From smugglers, to treacherous boat crossings to EU-funded detention centres, she documents rape, torture and many other forms of awful abuse. At the centre are always the refugees actual voices, always attaching real humans to this far away suffering. It must be read to be believed.
This book is focused on exposing the human stories - for solutions, you’ll have to look elsewhere. That doesn’t diminish this achievement - any discussion of change must begin by first fully facing up to what is currently going so wrong. Bravo Sally Hayden.
9/10
Hayden’s reporting is vast yet so personal - she covers refugees from many nations, all all linked via the horrific human rights situation in Libya. From smugglers, to treacherous boat crossings to EU-funded detention centres, she documents rape, torture and many other forms of awful abuse. At the centre are always the refugees actual voices, always attaching real humans to this far away suffering. It must be read to be believed.
This book is focused on exposing the human stories - for solutions, you’ll have to look elsewhere. That doesn’t diminish this achievement - any discussion of change must begin by first fully facing up to what is currently going so wrong. Bravo Sally Hayden.
9/10
July 7, 2023
This hard-hitting expose by Irish journalist Sally Hayden concerning the plight of African citizens fleeing persecution, poverty, hopelessness and every other negative life experience you can name, makes for shocking reading. According to Hayden's account, most who try to escape via the Mediterranean Migration Route end up in even more precarious situations than the ones they risk life and limb to leave behind. Treacherous lives in Eritrea and Ethiopia are exchanged for monstrous, non-humane treatment in the detention camps of Libya by just about everyone, including leaders and staff of countries and organisations purporting to protect and advance the human rights of the refugees.
3.5 stars and recommended for an eye-opening account of refugee lives beyond the all too hastily forgotten shocking images and headlines.
3.5 stars and recommended for an eye-opening account of refugee lives beyond the all too hastily forgotten shocking images and headlines.
December 9, 2023
Reading this alongside The Divide (Hickel) alongside witnessing the USA veto a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and Canada, the UK, several European states and Australia fail to call for the same, alongside COP28, makes it very clear who the baddies are (it’s us/the west)
September 28, 2025
Het is een belangrijk verhaal dat consequent, al dan niet bewust, vergeten wordt: dat van de mensen op de gammele bootjes naar Europa. Dit boek probeert dat recht te zetten, wat aardig lukt. Toch is juist dat ook de valkuil van het boek; door alles en iedereen een naam te geven, wat precies de bedoeling is, is het vaak moeilijk om het boek te lezen.
June 28, 2023
Essential reading. Especially for anyone who has any type of negative thoughts toward migrants. You don't understand what people go through. Read their stories.
February 11, 2024
Reading this at a time when Texas is flaunting federal law and barring border patrol from rescuing mothers and children from drowning and on and on and on is just overwhelming. They told me 40 years ago "if you're not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're old, you have no brain." I think that recent history has refuted that absurdity and this book just underscores the moral bankruptcy of those who would torture the tortured.
June 21, 2025
I finished this months ago and I still don’t have anything to say other than that everyone (but especially politicians and policymakers) should read this book.
January 20, 2023
If you are interested in learning about this topic, search for Sally Hayden online and read a few articles.
I haven’t followed her before, but thought to learn about this, since pretty much daily, it’s reported in the UK news about refugees, migrant crisis, asylum seekers, boats entering from France, people dying trying to cross Sea(s), as well as the bad conditions in detention centres. It was about time for me to dig deeper and learn more.
Perhaps it’s not fair to give this book a 4, however, as a book – I found a portion of it quite repetitive. Once you go through a few chapters, you realise the intensity and the problem – but I wanted the last 100 pages of the book to come a bit sooner. After reading about different detention centres and “the problem”, chapters about Rwanda (chapter 19) as well as chapters on the European countries (chapters 21, 23 and 24) as well as "Smugglers on Trial" (chapter 22) – were interesting to read as they offer a glimpse of “what’s next for those who escaped”. And you do want to know more about those who didn’t drown, but survived. Once you read 300 pages of this heart-breaking book, you are invested in it.
I’ve learnt a lot, and I’m deeply and massively disappointed in the UN. I’ve previously donated to UNHCR as I believed this to be a trustworthy charity. I cannot see them in the same light after reading this book. The book has definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t know, I wasn’t aware of and or I didn’t pay too much attention to. This book doesn’t suggest solutions for the problem. Sally Hayden is a great journalist, and as she says many times in the book – she cannot advise or solve problems, she can only report on them. And this book is great as it's great journalism and reporting on the problem.
I haven’t followed her before, but thought to learn about this, since pretty much daily, it’s reported in the UK news about refugees, migrant crisis, asylum seekers, boats entering from France, people dying trying to cross Sea(s), as well as the bad conditions in detention centres. It was about time for me to dig deeper and learn more.
Perhaps it’s not fair to give this book a 4, however, as a book – I found a portion of it quite repetitive. Once you go through a few chapters, you realise the intensity and the problem – but I wanted the last 100 pages of the book to come a bit sooner. After reading about different detention centres and “the problem”, chapters about Rwanda (chapter 19) as well as chapters on the European countries (chapters 21, 23 and 24) as well as "Smugglers on Trial" (chapter 22) – were interesting to read as they offer a glimpse of “what’s next for those who escaped”. And you do want to know more about those who didn’t drown, but survived. Once you read 300 pages of this heart-breaking book, you are invested in it.
I’ve learnt a lot, and I’m deeply and massively disappointed in the UN. I’ve previously donated to UNHCR as I believed this to be a trustworthy charity. I cannot see them in the same light after reading this book. The book has definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t know, I wasn’t aware of and or I didn’t pay too much attention to. This book doesn’t suggest solutions for the problem. Sally Hayden is a great journalist, and as she says many times in the book – she cannot advise or solve problems, she can only report on them. And this book is great as it's great journalism and reporting on the problem.
October 1, 2023
3.5/5
This is incredibly heartbreaking and hard to read (or listen to in my case) a lot of the time. It did feel repetitive towards the middle as we heard about similar awful experiences over and over from various detention centres, or the lack of assistance from various agencies that were supposed to help. I think Sally had so much she wanted to share after years of reporting that it pulled the book down somewhat. It did open my eyes to what the EU has orchestrated with the Libyan government and how flawed UNHCR as an agency is. It’s a very tough read.
This is incredibly heartbreaking and hard to read (or listen to in my case) a lot of the time. It did feel repetitive towards the middle as we heard about similar awful experiences over and over from various detention centres, or the lack of assistance from various agencies that were supposed to help. I think Sally had so much she wanted to share after years of reporting that it pulled the book down somewhat. It did open my eyes to what the EU has orchestrated with the Libyan government and how flawed UNHCR as an agency is. It’s a very tough read.
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