To understand why and how people flee, turn to these seven books and one documentary
Catapult; 368 pages; $16.95. Canongate Books; £10.99One World; 208 pages; $17. Swift Press; £12.99
Both these books blend memoir and reportage. Each also tells the story of a person who fled hardship, made it to America, then prospered. Dina Nayeri, an Iranian refugee, attended Princeton and Harvard. Karla Villavicencio, originally from Ecuador, became one of Harvard’s first “undocumented” students, meaning she was allowed to study there even though her legal status in America had not been confirmed.
How does a journalist report on a refugee’s flight? One way is to take part in it. In 2016 a Canadian, Matthieu Aikins, shared the plight of his Afghan friend on the arduous route from Afghanistan to Europe. Mr Aikins left his passport with a friend in case of emergency; Omar had no such back-up. That fundamental difference between the two men’s situation can sit uneasily with Mr Aikins’s lyrical storytelling.
Sally Hayden, a journalist, began investigating a massive human-rights scandal in August 2018–after she received a message on Facebook from a man held in a Libyan prison for migrants. European taxpayers, she learned, wereterrible abuse. The Libyan Coast Guard, funded, trained and given operational support by the European Union, intercepted migrants who were trying to reach Europe by sea. They were then dispatched to detention facilities in Libya, where murder, rape and assault were common.
The Za’atari camp, in northern Jordan, is the largest camp for Syrian refugees, hosting some 80,000 people. Jordan, a country of 10m, has over 3m refugees. Ali El Arabi’s documentary tells the story of two teenage football fanatics, Fawzi and Mahmoud, who are offered a shot at leaving the camp by a Qatari football academy. Its protagonists are typical teenagers who tease each other about girls and marvel at their football heroes.
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