The Naked Don't Fear the Water: A Journey Through the Refugee Underground

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He managed to get into Iran and then make a very difficult crossing over - through some smugglers over the Zagros Mountains. You could land on the Greek islands, you could travel safely in buses and trains, you know, relatively speaking, to get to where you wanted to go and - so a total suspension of the normal state of affairs. Matthieu Aikins is a journalist currently based in Kabul and has reported from Afghanistan and the Middle East since 2008. And they're checking to make sure no migrants, you know, who don't have proper paperwork can get on this ferry.

The crisis reached its greatest prominence seven years ago, when a photo of the tiny, lifeless body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi, face down on a Turkish beach, shocked the conscience of the globe and, according to the New York Times, “became a worldwide symbol of the suffering caused by the Syrian war and the European refugee crisis it triggered. I’d known Omar since I’d started working in Afghanistan, and he’d always dreamed of living in the West, but his aspiration had grown urgent as the civil war intensified and his city was torn apart by bombings.I mean, even reporters who come and interview people, it's often in a circumstance where they're not able to be candid. And, you know, also when you're on the road in these smugglers' safe houses or in the camps, everyone's kind of hiding something. The reporting is totally immersive, without ever losing its clarity, and gives a heartbreaking insight into the lives of normal people taking terrible risks to save themselves.

S. invasion of their country in 2001, Omar and almost 6 million fellow Afghans have been either internally displaced or become refugees. And the driver doesn't really want to be hanging out with a bunch of illegal immigrants in the back of his van, so he takes off.

And, of course, if something really serious did happen, you know, I was going to do everything I could to help him.