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Award-winning journalist Wolfgang Bauer and photographer Stanislav Krupar were the first undercover reporters to document the journey of Syrian refugees from Egypt to Europe. Posing as English teachers in 2014, they were direct witnesses to the brutality of smuggler gangs, the processes of detainment and deportation, the dangers of sea-crossing on rickety boats, and the final furtive journey through Europe. Combining their own travels with other eyewitness accounts in the first book of reportage of its kind, Crossing the Sea brings to life both the systemic problems and the individual faces behind the crisis, and is a passionate appeal for more humanitarian refugee policies.
“It’s not just the detail in this book that counts. It’s the anger.”
—Robert Fisk, The Independent
“An excellent book.”
—Melissa Fleming, Spokesperson and Head of Communications, UNHCR
“In 2014, journalist Wolfgang Bauer went undercover to document the flight of Syrian refugees firsthand . . . An incisive portrait both of the lives behind the crisis, and the systemic problems that constitute it.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“Crossing The Sea offers an inside perspective on their plight, and tells a story rarely told . . . The refugees’ stories and remarkable photos provide a counter-narrative to the popular media rhetoric.”
—Antonia Charlesworth, Big Issue North
“Wolfgang Bauer is a sophisticated and conscientious reporter, an expert on the Arab Spring and its aftermath, and a brilliant writer.”
— Nell Zink, author of Mislaid and The Wallcreeper
“The last words of this book are ‘Have mercy.’ There is no more to say. Wolfgang Bauer’s impressive and brutally honest depiction of the fates of refugees speaks for itself.”
— Berthold Merkle, Der Tagesspiegel
“The book shows what the media and politicians have ignored.”
— ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk, Austrian national broadcaster)
“The book affects you on two levels. There is the gripping reportage that brings us very close to the people, and there is also the epilogue’s entreating words. Bauer’s accusation is powerful.”
— Südwest Presse, Ulm
Wolfgang Bauer is a reporter for Die Zeit. His reportage has won him many prizes including the Prix Bayeux-Calvados for War Correspondents. He has worked in the Arab world for many years, including in war zones in Syria and Libya. His second Prix Bayeux-Calvados for War Correspondents was awarded for the Syrian refugee reportage in Die Zeit that formed the basis of this book.
Stanislav Krupar is a Prague-based documentary photographer. His work appears regularly in the New York Times, Time, Die Zeit, and other international media. Besides covering news and current affairs, Krupar is working on several long-term documentary projects in Russia and Siberia. Before becoming a full-time professional photographer, he also spent time as an illegal migrant worker at farms in England.
Sarah Pybus worked as an in-house translator in Germany and the UK before beginning her freelance career. In 2015 she was awarded first place in the Non-Fiction Translation Competition run by Geisteswissenschaften International/German Book Office New York.