The uninvited. Refugees at the rich man’s gate

Book abstract:

This book began as a report on a large number of asylum seekers entering Italy on boats in the late 1990s. It led the author on a journey following migrants and refugees in Morocco, Spain, Italy, Kosovo and Albania, and accompanying the border patrols that try to keep them out. He gives a harrowing account of the day-to-day lives of the refugees as well as giving an insight into the underground 'travel agencies' - document forgers, chaperones, drivers, guides - trying to smuggle them in to Western Europe.
Part I covers refugees trying to reach wealthy countries now but it also covers the period between the two world wars, when refugees were on the move all over the continent and this examination leads to the question 'does the rise and fall of refugee numbers have any bearing on the obligations of states to offer sanctuary?' Part II looks at the predicament of the 'economic migrant', those who have no grounds on which to claim asylum but who face hardships in their own countries as severe as the political persecution from which refugees are fleeing.
This pocket-sized book provides a fascinating insight into this burning political issue.
Jeremy Harding is a Senior Editor at the London Review of Books.

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