As the great-granddaughter of Russian emigrants, I’ve always been fascinated with stories about migration and refugees. I’ve been lucky enough to live in London my whole life, far removed from the despairing realities of war and political unrest. However, with Brexit looming, the prospect of migration is becoming a reality for many individuals in the UK, and has sparked an even deeper interest in exploring the trials and tribulations of forced displacement. Extremism in this era is leading to increased racism and xenophobia: championed by the Brexit party, Donald Trump and Brazil’s Bolsonaro, influential decision-makers are determining the worth of human lives. Reflecting on our modern-day world and how accepting (or unaccepting) of refugees we are, I read ‘A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea’ by Melissa Fleming, which I shall discuss in this review. The UN Refugee Agency states that there are 37,000 people forced to flee their homes due to conflict every day and one person is forcibly displaced every two seconds due to conflict or persecution. Doaa’s story is just one account amongst thousands which I would like to share with you.

The narrative focuses on Doaa Al Zamel, a 16-year-old girl forced to flee her home in Daraa, Syria, with her family, after a bomb destroys her father’s barbershop. Her father worries about his daughters - it is common for teenage girls to be kidnapped off the streets - and he believes the risk of staying in Syria is too high. The family migrate to Egypt across several dangerous military check-points, where thousands of Syrians are attempting the same move. Doaa describes coming to terms with their new life in Egypt, at first relatively accommodating of refugees, until President Morsi is overthrown by a military coup and Syrians start to become threatened by locals. Doaa falls in love, reluctantly at first, with a fellow Syrian migrant called Bassem whilst in Egypt. She and Bassem decide to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy and eventually Sweden, where she hopes her family will join them and finally live a safe and happy life. After twice attempting to be smuggled out of Egypt and spending subsequent days in jail, Doaa and Bassem finally manage to set sail aboard a smugglers fishing boat with 500 others. Doaa is 19 at the time and terrified of the sea. As they set off, Doaa is excited by the prospect of her new life with Bassem, after years of struggle there finally seems to be a glimmer of hope for her future. However, the story turns for the worse. Egyptian ‘pirates’ in another boat ram into and sink the boat she is on.

The nightmare that ensues is one of the most horrific accounts I have read, a modern day ‘Titanic’ if you will. Doaa witnesses the death of fellow passengers as she struggles to survive for four days, floating on a small inflatable ring Bassem finds for her. She is stranded amongst the deceased, with no food or water, in the blazing sun during the day and freezing temperatures at night. She becomes delirious after the death of Bassem and explains how all she wants is her life to end. However, at the point of giving up, she is entrusted with looking after two infants, aged nine and 18 months old, by their family members who subsequently die around her. Knowing that they would not survive, their only hope was to give these babies to Doaa in an attempt to save their lives. Nietzsche’s “he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” is fitting here; Doaa’s sole motivation to keep these infants alive enables her survival. As she recounts finally being rescued, she is one of a handful of survivors from the 500-person wreckage; one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in human history.  

Doaa’s willpower and determination illustrate the strength of the human will to survive. Since this memoir was written, Doaa has been taken in by a host family in Crete, where she finally contacted her family about what happened since she set off from Egypt two weeks earlier. As social media began spreading the news of the 19-year-old survivor, she was approached by UNHCR and transferred to Sweden where her family had special consent to join her. The ending to her story is sadly not the common outcome for refugees – if they make it alive, the prospect of their families joining them is very rare. Doaa still hopes to return to Syria one day, demonstrating her unrelenting desire to belong, despite her harrowing ordeal. 

 This memoir was an incredibly gripping story and a powerful and emotive read; sometimes too harrowing to process, but one I could not put down. Just as Doaa’s experience was relentless and unforgiving, I felt immersed and unable to detach myself.  It is impossible to grasp the extremity of her situation, but I deem it essential that as fellow human beings we attempt to understand the severity of the refugee crisis, whether in Syria or other countries around the world. This book was an eye-opening insight into the fragile and unstable life of a refugee, and the cost of seeking something we all take for granted – a safe and happy one. Whilst I will never be able to understand the emotional wear and loss of identity Doaa and other refugees are confronted with, this memoir allowed me to understand my family’s history a little more and reminded me how lucky I am to be living in a safe and stable country. We all need to be more considerate of the incredible human cost of the Syrian civil war and what forced displacement does to families and individuals. Even when having survived a treacherous crossing, their battle doesn’t stop here. Refugees are often faced with discrimination and abuse, a lack of access to services, and must adapt to a new language and culture. They are alone. We should all welcome refugees with open arms and make them feel valued, for what benefit is it to isolate them even more?  

In concluding, I would like to reflect on this poem by Warsan Shire, a Somalian refugee, to illustrate the impact of forced displacement on the human soul. It shows how refugees are discriminated and tortured for attempting to rebuild their lives. Please share this and extend a loving hand to all refugees, for they are fighting battles greater than we can even begin to imagine.  

Home by Warsan Shire 
no one leaves home unless 
home is the mouth of a shark 
you only run for the border 
when you see the whole city running as well 

your neighbors running faster than you 
breath bloody in their throats 
the boy you went to school with 
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory 
is holding a gun bigger than his body 
you only leave home 
when home won’t let you stay.  

no one leaves home unless home chases you 
fire under feet 
hot blood in your belly 
it’s not something you ever thought of doing 
until the blade burnt threats into 
your neck 
and even then you carried the anthem under 
your breath 
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet 
sobbing as each mouthful of paper 
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back. 

you have to understand, 
that no one puts their children in a boat 
unless the water is safer than the land 
no one burns their palms 
under trains 
beneath carriages 
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck 
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled 
means something more than journey. 
no one crawls under fences 
no one wants to be beaten 
pitied 

no one chooses refugee camps 
or strip searches where your 
body is left aching 
or prison, 
because prison is safer 
than a city of fire 
and one prison guard 
in the night 
is better than a truckload 
of men who look like your father 
no one could take it 
no one could stomach it 
no one skin would be tough enough 

the 
go home blacks 
refugees 
dirty immigrants 
asylum seekers 
sucking our country dry 
niggers with their hands out 
they smell strange 
savage 
messed up their country and now they want 
to mess ours up 
how do the words 
the dirty looks 
roll off your backs 
maybe because the blow is softer 
than a limb torn off 

or the words are more tender 
than fourteen men between 
your legs 
or the insults are easier 
to swallow 
than rubble 
than bone 
than your child body 
in pieces. 

i want to go home, 
but home is the mouth of a shark 
home is the barrel of the gun 
and no one would leave home 
unless home chased you to the shore 
unless home told you 
to quicken your legs 
leave your clothes behind 
crawl through the desert 
wade through the oceans 
drown 
save 
be hunger 
beg 
forget pride 
your survival is more important 

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear 
saying- 
leave, 
run away from me now 
i dont know what i’ve become 
but i know that anywhere 
is safer than here