My Fourth Time, We Drowned cover art

My Fourth Time, We Drowned

Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

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About this listen

 WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE WINNER OF IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE ‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read’ SALLY ROONEY

The treatment of refugees has become one of the most devastating human rights disasters in our history. In this book, award-winning journalist Sally Hayden unfolds a staggering investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa.

This book follows the experiences of refugees, telling a range of shocking and eye-opening human stories. But it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations. The economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias. The trials of people smugglers, the frustrations of aid workers, the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported?

At its heart, this is a book about people who have made unimaginable choices, risking everything to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.

©2022 Sally Hayden (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Africa Corruption & Misconduct Freedom & Security Politics & Government Social Sciences Refugee Heartfelt
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Sally Hayden's extraordinary book illustrates the systems creating and controlling the experiences people have travelling to Europe to seek asylum. It will open your mind to the reality of human rights in Europe. Definitely read this book.

Extraordinary Book, Important story

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Incredibly researched, beautifully narrated, eye opening and harrowing. This is the book I will urge everybody I know to read this year.

Must read

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The narration is exceptional and helps bring this account to life. Interspersed with some real voices of people affected by this can’t, this book summarises the path to expose a determined deliberate human rights abuse. It’s not an easy listen, but by doing so at the very least, awareness is raised of something that was hidden for far too long. All your western troubles are thrown into perspective and your grasp on what you thought you knew is shaken. Please read it if you feel strong enough (it should come with many trigger warnings, so don’t if you’re not in a good place. ) if you are, try to bear witness and don’t look away. It’s a start to a conversation with our politicians and media about immigration and is sorely needed.

A shocking but necessary listen

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The suffering of asylum seekers and refugees in this account is shocking and so unnecessary. Successive governments in the EU have paid millions of pounds to facilitate human rights abuses. I found this appealing.

A unjust fight to keep asylum seekers from reachin

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I’m finishing this book just as Rishi Sunak &!Suella Braverman are trying to pass a bill to make it illegal to cross the channel in a small boat to seek asylum.

Feeling despair

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