Alixandra Fazzina - A Million Shillings

This book follows the journey of desperate emigrants, or tahrib, to their embarkation points with smugglers on the coast of Somalia, on a perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden, and onward in the search for a better life. The cost is just $50, or one million Somali shillings. With a one in twenty chance of not making it to the other side alive, it is a price they must risk their lives for.

Across the Horn of Africa, war, abuse and poverty make millions miserable and drive thousands to attempt to flee. With land borders cut off or closed, and surrounded by conflict on all sides, one of the only means of escape is by sea.

In 2010 Alixandra Fazzina was awarded the Nansen Award, the highest accolade from the UNHCR for her work for refugees, and António Guterres the High Commissioner of UNHCR writes the foreword for this book.

Alixandra Fazzina’s photography focuses on under-reported conflicts and the often forgotten humanitarian consequences of war. Having studied fine art, she began her career as a war artist in Bosnia. Since then, she has worked independently as a photojournalist throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She worked over a period of two years to chronicle the exodus of migrants and refugees from Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula. For this work A Million Shillings - Escape From Somalia, she was a finalist in the Care Award for Humanitarian Reportage and the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Vic Odden award from the Royal Photographic Society.