Sally Hayden

Sally Hayden is an Irish journalist who reports on migration, refugees, and human rights for the Irish Times and other publications. She began her career covering Africa and the Mediterranean refugee crisis and has spent years documenting the experiences of migrants and asylum seekers detained in Libya and other countries while attempting to reach Europe. Her book My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route (2022) is a landmark work of investigative journalism, drawing on WhatsApp messages sent directly to Hayden by migrants and asylum seekers trapped in Libyan detention centres. The book documents in harrowing detail the violence, exploitation, and death that characterise Europe's outsourced refugee detention system. It won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022, the Gordon Burns Prize, the Michel Déon Prize, and was shortlisted for numerous other awards. Hayden is widely regarded as one of the most courageous and important journalists covering the European refugee crisis. Her reporting has influenced policy debates and public understanding of a system that operates largely outside of public view. She is based in Nairobi.