Oliver Balch

A Canadian’s experience of the migrant’s ordeal

Fleeing Kabul with a local taxi driver, Matthieu Aikins poses as a fellow Afghan on a nightmarish journey to the unknown

Refugee camp in Lesbos in 2015. [Getty Images]

No one boards an overladen dinghy and sets out across a choppy sea without very good reason. Laden into migrant boats go backstories as well as bodies: tales of war-hit homes and bloodied police cells, of empty larders and decrepit schools. But illegal migration is as much about what lies ahead as what’s left behind: the hope of a better life, the chance to start anew.

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