Books: My Fourth Time, we Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

Sally Hayden, 2023. My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route. PB: 4th Estate 978-0008445614. 512. 12.99. ![Graphic][1]</img> ‘Sally, are you here?’ The call for help came from a man whom the author had never met, a continent away. Thus began her journey into the murky undercurrents of the East African and Central Mediterranean migration route. In this book, Irish journalist Sally Hayden has drawn together a compelling document recounting the experiences of refugees embarking on the world’s deadliest migration route. Her involvement began with this plea via social media from an Eritrean migrant. He was being held in a Libyan detention centre. Through this and subsequent contacts, she gained access to firsthand accounts of migrants seeking refuge in Europe and became a witness to the moral minefield of this world. The book takes us on a sobering journey, on which our horizons are painfully broadened and which drives us to question ourselves and our values. The book starts with short biographies of the Eritreans, Ethiopians, and Sudanese who later became Hayden’s friends. It charts the events that compel them to save up fortunes, to leave their families, and to entrust themselves to people smugglers. The East African migration route involves running the gauntlet through Libya. Here, many spend years held in warehouses, waiting for family and friends to pay smugglers additional ransom money before they are put on boats bound for the Italian coast. We hear of harrowing conditions documented through messages sent through smuggled phones: ‘When one of the sick girls was about to die, [the smuggler] told her she can’t die before she gives him money, while … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif