Making Sense of Migration

Migration is a mess. It’s a really complicated topic, confused by angry rhetoric and political arguments which are passionate, confused and hard to disentangle. So what a worried observer with endless leisure needs is a good book, and luckily I’ve just discovered one. “The Fourth Time, We Drowned” is 400 pages about the situation in Europe, mainly in Libya. The EU doesn’t want large numbers of Africans coming to Europe, so they pay Libya huge amounts of money to make sure that doesn’t happen. But “Libya” isn’t a pleasant, rational country, organised to do a humanitarian job. It’s a mixture of competing militias, who make money by locking up migrants, threatening them, blackmailing their relatives, and either taking them off boats or putting them on boats, whichever is the more lucrative. Sally Hayden, in Irish journalist, uncovers all this with enormous patience, relying on social media links with a succession of migrants in horrendous circumstances. For many of them she is their only source of hope, and she pursues the story doggedly, chasing down EU representatives, spokespersons and whistleblowers from UNHCR, and other agencies unable to match their public statements with effective action. It’s depressing but hugely impressive, and on the back cover there are seven seriously good writers of various kinds, each testifying that this is a very special book. I got it from the local library. I’m guessing you could do thesame.