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

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Aikins shared in the author’s note that it took him five years to write this epic story. Not only is it filled with the harrowing adventure he and Omar took down the smuggler’s road, from Kabul, to Turkey, and Greece, but it’s also filled with a wealth of research related to immigration, the refugee crisis, war, imperialism, activism, social justice, nationalism, I could go on and on. It took me a while to read this narrative nonfiction (my absolute favorite type of nonfiction) because I was learning and absorbing what I read. The writing is precise, smooth, and easy-to-read, but I had some personal work to do in digesting it.

AIKINS: Yeah. Well, it was the only way that I could do it because, you know, if I had my passport on me and we were caught by thieves or, you know, could be kidnapped or the police would separate us. So there was no other way to do it. I think that it probably added some risks, but it also meant that we were traveling together. We could, you know, take care of each other. And, of course, if something really serious did happen, you know, I was going to do everything I could to help him.DAVIES: Yeah. He eventually - he doesn't end up in Greece. He's not still there, right? He's made it to safety? Even if [Obama] is more progressive than Bush, or now Trump, he's still the representative of the main imperialist power that's responsible for the wars that made many of these people refugees." (p. 276)

Furthermore, Aikins also goes into depth to explain the political, economic, and social situation of each country that he and Omar migrated to. This helped put into context the hostility and barriers that many refugees faced, which in turn made their journey a lot more difficult than Aikins had anticipated AIKINS: That's one of the hiding places, is to climb onto the axle itself, often with, like, a little board so you don't get caught in the spinning shaft. AIKINS: They had their cellphones out and were showing me pictures of the children they said had died in the strike. They showed me the business card and documents belonging to Zemari Ahmadi, who was the one targeted in the strike and saying, you know, he worked for an American NGO, you know, he's an aid worker. They had the documents right there.DAVIES: He said, this is not what we paid for. And he saw a weapon and said, you're going now. So that's - you got into this little boat.