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The Book of Shame is a survivor-led indictment of the international refugee protection system and the policies that have transformed Libya, Tunisia and Niger into zones of containment, abandonment and death.

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Written from the experiences of refugees and migrants who have survived detention, torture, abduction at sea, racial violence, forced displacement and prolonged humanitarian limbo, the book documents how institutions created to protect refugees have repeatedly failed them. It examines UNHCR’s role, the consequences of European border externalisation, the complicity of governments and security actors, and the ways in which refugee voices are ignored, criminalised or treated as threats when they organise and demand their rights.

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Moving through Libya, Tunisia and Niger, the Book of Shame shows that these are not separate humanitarian crises. They are connected parts of a wider system that finances containment, rewards abusive authorities and keeps refugees far from the borders of Europe while denying them protection, dignity and durable solutions.

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The book is not only a record of institutional failure. It is also an act of resistance. It preserves the testimonies, evidence and political analysis of those who have lived through these systems and refused to remain silent. Its purpose is not to ask for sympathy, but to demand accountability and to insist that survivors must be recognised as authors, witnesses and political actors in every process concerning their lives.

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The Book of Shame asks a fundamental question: when an institution mandated to protect refugees repeatedly aligns itself with the interests of states seeking to contain, expel and silence them, what remains of its mandate?