Category Archives: Photography

May/June – Al Jazeera, the Guardian, the Irish Times, Channel 4 News, TIME, IRE Journal, ITV News, BBC, Re:public (selected)

‘”White saviourism” under scrutiny after child deaths in Uganda’, the Irish Times, June 29, 2019

‘”If you pay, you’ll go”: Dadaab residents claim bribery is price of getting home’, the Guardian, June 28, 2019

‘Deaths pile up in Libyan detention centre, leaked UN report shows’, the Irish Times, June 25, 2019

‘The economic impact of Ebola’, BBC’s World Business Report, June 24, 2019 (interview)

‘How misinformation is making it almost impossible to contain the Ebola outbreak in DRC’, TIME, June 20, 2019

‘City of Goma braces itself for Ebola outbreak’, the Irish Times, June 20, 2019

‘Inside the battle to save Congo from the Ebola crisis’, TIME, June 19, 2019 (recommended in Foreign Policy’s ‘Morning Brief’)

Belinda Landu, 28, takes off her protective gear after decontaminating the house of a pastor who’s just tested positive for Ebola

Helped with this report on migrant detention in Libya for ITV News, June 11, 2019

Helped with this report on the conditions in Zintan detention centre for Channel 4 News, June 7, 2019

‘”We need urgent help”: Refugees perish in Libyan detention centre’, Al Jazeera, June 7, 2019 (referenced by Open Migration)

Speaking at the Mobile Journalism Festival in Galway about refugees in Libyan detention centres using phones to send information.

‘Call for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths in the Mediterranean’, the Irish Times, June 5, 2019

An article about the background to our 2017 investigation into refugees being arrested/tortured after going back to Syria is the cover story in this quarter’s Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal. Available to members here.

Ranked 16th most influential journalist on Twitter in Ireland.

‘Germany follows UK in suspending refugee aid to Uganda’, the Irish Times, May 29, 2019

‘War-torn Libya’s evacuees fret about those left behind’, the Irish Times, May 21, 2019

‘Poverty, corruption and fake news to the fore as Malawi gears up for elections’, the Irish Times, May 17, 2019

‘Sudan civilian protests to continue after talks with military council collapse’, the Irish Times, May 16, 2019

‘Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo out of control, say aid workers’, the Irish Times, May 15, 2019

‘Revealed: human rights abuses in Libyan migrant camps’, Channel 4 News, May 10, 2019

‘Migrants in line of fire as battle to take Tripoli rages on’, the Irish Times, May 8, 2019

‘TORTYR PÅ ENTREPRENAD’, Re:public, May 8, 2019

‘Fortress Europe: what happens to the refugees sent back to Libya?’, Today in Focus podcast, the Guardian, May 8, 2019 (Wednesday briefing)

‘As Tripoli conflict continues, detained migrants run out of food’, Al Jazeera, May 2, 2019 (also in Bosnian)

August/September – RTE, Women in Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Irish Times, BBC, ZEIT Online, News Media Alliance, the Observer, Al Jazeera, the National, the New Internationalist, CNBC (selected)

Radio piece from the UN General Assembly in New York, RTE World Report, Sept 30, 2018

‘Refugees detained in Libya are drinking toilet water to survive’, The National, Sept 27, 2018

My photo from a hospital in Maryland, Liberia, was used in this CNBC report, Sept 26, 2018

Spoke about the situation for refugees in Libya on Al Jazeera’s ‘The Stream’, Sept 20, 2018

Named as a finalist in the international freelance category of the Kurt Schork Memorial Awards, 2018

migration media awards sept '18Collecting first prize, print, in the Migration Media Awards in Tunis, Sept 18, 2018

My photo from a hospital in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, was used in this US News & World Report piece, Sept 18, 2018

Latest From Our Own Correspondent talking about how my motorbike driver said he used to be ex-LRA commander Dominic Ongwen’s babysitter, BBC Radio Four, Sept 15, 2018

BK9B1907My photo from Liberia’s Tuberculosis Annex was in the Observer, Sept 15, 2018

‘”Live free or die trying on the sea”: Limbo in Libya for unregistered refugees’, the Irish Times, Sept 12, 2018

I was interviewed by the American News Media Alliance, who have named me a ‘2018 Rising Star’. Sept 9, 2018

‘Libyen: “Wir sind keine Tiere”‘, ZEIT Online, Sept 6, 2018

I was on BBC’s Newsday talking about the migrants I’m in touch with in Libya. BBC World Service, Sept 6, 2018

‘Refugees and migrants scatter across Libya as conflict escalates’, the Irish Times, Sept 5, 2018 (I was also on the Irish Times World View podcast)

I had an article in the relaunched New Internationalist about Uganda shutting down orphanages, September issue.

Nice to find out we won first prize in the European Migration Media Awards for this story about Syrian refugee returns.

I was on BBC Newshour – from 34 minutes in – talking about the situation for refugees and migrants abandoned during fighting in Libya. BBC, Aug 31, 2018 (I was also on BBC World TV)

‘Migrants in Libya detention centre say their lives are in peril’, Irish Times, Aug 28, 2018 (this report was referenced in UNHCR’s update to its policy, in which they said Libya is no longer a safe country for returns)

My tweets about the situation for Libyan migrants after fighting broke out in Tripoli were seen more than 2.5 million times. (Mentioned by SBS, Open Migration, Telepolis)

My reporting on Syrian refugees returning home was mentioned on BBC Newshour, Aug 17, 2018

‘Kidnapped as children, they escaped from Kony’s LRA to be reunited with their families in Uganda’, the Washington Post, Aug 13, 2018

BK9B2641Owong Sam, abducted by the LRA aged nine, is reunited with his mother in northern Uganda after sixteen years apart.

Radio report about visiting a Gambian village where a 2016 witch hunt took place, RTE World Report, Aug 5, 2018 (programme from 11.30)

BK9B1665-2A photo from Kamfenda, in Gambia’s Foni region, the site of a 2016 witch hunt ordered by ex-president Yahya Jammeh.

I was interviewed by Women in Foreign Policy.

June/July – RTE, the New Internationalist, the Irish Times, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, IRIN News, Al Jazeera, BBC, Voice of America (selected)

‘As high seas threaten Liberian slum, residents await promised homes’, the Thomson Reuters Foundation/Place, July 27, 2018 (Reuters link; also published by Sight Magazine; Voice of America; AllAfrica; Devdiscourse)

BK9B2098Fishermen work on the shores of West Point, a slum in Liberia which risks being washed away by the sea

‘For refugees in Sudan, fears surround probe into UN resettlement fraud’, IRIN News, July 23, 2018 (in Arabic; also on Cameroon Voice)

I went on BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa to speak about witnessing three Lord’s Resistance Army escapees reunite with their families (from about 32 minutes in), July 16, 2018

Radio report on Uganda’s local elections, RTE World Report, July 15, 2018 (from about 12 minutes in)

Radio report on Uganda’s social media tax, RTE World Report, July 8, 2018 (from about 12 minutes in)

‘Uganda’s “gossip tax” forces phone users into a boycott’, the Irish Times, July 7, 2018 (I also spoke about this on Al Jazeera English)

I was in the European Parliament in Brussels to speak about the situation for refugees in Sudan, June 27-28, 2018

Radio report from Liberia (from about 11:50), RTE World Report, June 24, 3018

BK9B1686A picture of former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh still hangs in a house in his home region, Foni

‘After long dictatorship, Gambia’s victims step forward’, the Irish Times, June 22, 2018

A radio report from the World Cup for unrecognised nations, RTE Drivetime, June 11, 2018 (from 02:24:00)

A radio piece on life after war in northern Uganda, RTE World Report, June 3, 2018 (from about 12.30 in)

BK9B1153Photographing prosthetics for the war-wounded in Gulu Hospital, northern Uganda

I visited Lokodi, northern Uganda, the site of a 2004 LRA massacre, and met the residents fighting to build a museum, New Internationalist, June 2018 issue

April/May – RTE, Newsweek, the New Internationalist, International Journalism Festival, the Irish Times, Reuters, Irin, ELLE, the Washington Post, BBC, National Geographic (selected)

‘Gambia’s dictator ordered a witch hunt. This village is still haunted by it.’, Washington Post, May 28, 2018 (Republished by the Seattle Times. I also spoke about this story on BBC World Service)

BK9B1550Interviewing victims of a witch hunt in Sintet, rural Gambia

‘I got an abortion aged 16, now I’m flying home to vote’, ELLE, May 24, 2018

BK9B9944Teenagers sit in a dormitory in the unaccompanied minors section of Shagarab refugee camp, eastern Sudan

‘EXCLUSIVE: Refugees in Sudan allege chronic corruption in UN resettlement process’, Irin News, May 15, 2018 (Republished by the Sudan Tribune and All Africa. Write up in OCCRP. Two days after the publication of this investigation, UNHCR announced they were suspending their resettlement programme and sending out an anti-fraud team)

The Rory Peck Trust included me as one of their featured freelancers for World Press Day.

‘Returning LRA hostages face new ordeal over land conflicts in rural Uganda’, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, May 3, 2018 (also on the Christian Science Monitor)

BK9B1438Children of a former LRA captive pictured on a plot of land the family moved to after being chased from their former community in northern Uganda.

I tracked down one of seven refugees transferred to Cambodia from Nauru under a controversial $55 million deal, New Internationalist, May 2018 issue

rashid2Mohammad Rashid, a Rohingya from Myanmar who now runs a roti stand in Phnom Penh.

Honoured to have work nominated for the One World Media awards in the digital media and refugee reporting categories – and to be named a ‘2018 Rising Star’ by the News Media Alliance.

My photo was included in this National Geographic series, ’25 Cultural and Natural Wonders in Danger’, April 20, 2018 (and in National Geographic Japan)

Talking about collaborative reporting of refugee issues at the International Journalism Festival, April 14, 2018

Spoke about Westerners touring Syria on the Irish Times podcast, April 10, 2018

Ranked 39th most influential Irish journalist on Twitter.

A radio report from the Gambia on feelings against ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh (from 17.40), RTE World Report, April 8, 2018

‘Fake news tourism in Syria: Westerners search for “truth”, but are they Assad’s pawns?’ Newsweek, April 5, 2018 (also in Spanish

‘Portraits of three Syrian cities’, the New Internationalist, April edition (link)

BK9B9915Homs, November 2017.

February/March – Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Irish Times, RTE, the Guardian, ELLE, the New Internationalist (selected)

Radio report on a “kleptocracy tour” around London (from 01:50:10), RTE Drivetime, Mar 26, 2018

‘Facebook used to cripple opposition in run-up to Cambodia’s elections’, the Irish Times, Mar 20, 2018

‘Arrests and torture of Syrian refugees returning home reported’, the Irish Times, Mar 17, 2018 (Arabic translation here, and Arabic write-up in Der Telegraph)

‘Why are victims of FGM ending up in prison?’, ELLE, Mar 12, 2018

‘Between Sudan and a hard place’, New Internationalist, March 2018 issue

BK9B9899An Eritrean teenager poses in a dormitory in Shagarab refugee camp, eastern Sudan.

A report from Aleppo’s historic Baron Hotel (from about 11.30 in), RTE Radio One, Feb 11, 2018

S_Hayden_120218_3The bar in Aleppo’s Baron Hotel, which was close to the frontline before the city was retaken by government forces. More photos here

‘”We’ve seen too many girls bleed to death”: eradicating FGM in Uganda’, the Irish Times, Feb 6, 2018

My self-reported, self-edited package on FGM in northeast Uganda went out on RTE Drivetime, Feb 6, 2018

BK9B0233Photographing former “cutters” in northeast Uganda. More photos here

Spoke about FGM on World View, the Irish Times’s weekly podcast, Feb 6, 2018

‘Schools act as havens for girls fleeing FGM, marriage in Uganda’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Feb 6, 2018 (also on Voice of AmericaKenyan News, All Africa, Citizen TV Kenya)

BK9B0498Young girls who fled home after their families tried to marry them off or perform FGM on them. Karamoja, northeast Uganda.

Some of my photos from Uganda were also in the Guardian and used by SBS.

I was also honoured to be named a finalist for Amnesty International’s Gaby Rado award for best new journalist.

January – Thomson Reuters Foundation, RTE, HUCK, the Guardian (selected)

BK9B0193Churchgoers walking home in front of the Kokwotom mountain in Karamoja, northeast Uganda, in January

A piece for RTE Radio One’s World Report on the growing difficulty getting family reunification for refugees in Germany (from about 11.15), Jan 28, 2018

‘Captured, raped, ransomed: the kidnappers preying on Eritrean refugees’, the Guardian, Jan 19, 2018

‘Shooting the sidelines at Syria’s football cup final’, HUCK, Jan 12, 2018

BK9B9295Boys pose in front of a billboard showing Bashar al Assad at the Syrian Football Cup final in Tishreen Stadium, Damascus

Report from government-held Syria on what it’s like for families left behind (from 10.45), RTE Radio 1 World Report, Jan 7, 2018

BK9B9157Rabwah, an area of Damascus with restaurants and a small funfair

‘Left with “chocolate water”, Madagascar’s parched south grows hungrier’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jan 5, 2018 (more photos on SOPA Images)

BK9B9887Locals walk through Ambovombe, a city in southern Madagascar’s Androy region

December – Irish Times, BBC, RTE, ZEIT Online, Refugees Deeply, 100 Reporters, New Statesman, Pacific Standard (selected)

‘Inside a traumatised Aleppo: “Many children may suffer in the future”‘, New Statesman, Dec 22, 2017

‘The lonely fight in Sudan: one official works to stem migrant smuggling without a car, a photocopier, or any staff’, 100 Reporters/Journalists for Transparency, Dec 20, 2017

‘Africa’s crossroads: In Sudan, corruption and smugglers’ lies drive refugees onwards’, 100 Reporters/Journalists for Transparency, Dec 20, 2017 (also in the Irish Times)

BK9B9956Eritrean girls chat in their dorm in the unaccompanied minors section of Shagarab camp, close to the Eritrean border in eastern Sudan. More photos from Sudan here and here.

‘On the rough road from Sudan to Libya’, 100 Reporters/Journalists for Transparency, Dec 20, 2017

‘The new coyote trail: Refugees head west to bypass Fortress Europe’, Refugees Deeply, Dec 19, 2017 (part of a bigger project looking at migration across Africa and the Americas. Also in the Pacific Standard)

‘A tale of two fathers: “The way I miss my kids is indescribable”’, Irish Times, Dec 16, 2017

image1 (26)

‘Der Weg zurück nach Syrien’, ZEIT Online, Dec 11, 2017

An interview with Bridget Doody, the only Irish nun in Syria, RTE Drivetime, Dec 8, 2017

‘Road to Damascus: the Syrian refugees who want to go home’, Irish Times, Dec 4, 2017 – our four-month Mary Raftery Refugee Crisis Journalism Fund investigation into what happens to Syrian refugees who leave Europe. Also in Arabic (in an Irish Times first). Recommended as a Griffith Review “great read” and one of Refugees Deeply’s ‘Must read stories on refugees from 2017’. Included in Irish Times 2017 ‘highlights’.

Screen Shot 2017-12-04 at 10.38.44

‘From Our Own Correspondent’ dispatch on fake news and the plague in Madagascar – BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service, Dec 4, 2017

July/August/September – the Irish Times, RTE, the Independent, ELLE, Magnum Photos, BBC (selected)

My first From Our Own Correspondent on cat-fishing and sanctions in Sudan, BBC Radio 4, Sept 28, 2017 (also went out on BBC World Service)

BK9B9654Men relax in a graveyard in Omdurman, Sudan

‘Surviving Boko Haram’ – wrote the words to go with Paolo Pellegrin’s portraits, Magnum Photos, Sept 18, 2017

‘Boko Haram conflict leaves humanitarian crisis in its wake’, the Irish Times, Sept 14, 2017

BK9B9367Displaced families collect water in Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria

‘More than 200,000 Rohingya child refugees in urgent need of help, warns Unicef’, the Independent, Sept 14, 2017

Interviewed in this story on World Press Photo’s Witness: ‘The risks – and rewards – of solitude’, Sept 13, 2017

‘Why Boko Haram are using women as weapons of war’, ELLE, Sept 4, 2017

Exclusive: ‘Grenfell survivors worry Notting Hill Carnival will overshadow latest council failure’, the Independent, Aug 27, 2017

‘”My father was shot by his friend”: the children of Boko Haram’, the Irish Times, Aug 26, 2017 (later referenced in this UN report)

BK9B8968Meeting children who were recently released from Nigerian military detention in a transit centre in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria

‘New mafia-led militia may be stopping refugees from leaving Libya for Italy’, the Independent, Aug 22, 2017

‘Nigeria’s Boko Haram-fighting vigilantes losing heart’, the Irish Times, Aug 8, 2017

BK9B9598A CJTF vigilante fighter shows off a rifle he captured from Boko Haram in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria.

‘I hid my daughter in a ditch for nine months to save her from Boko Haram’, the Irish Times, July 22, 2017

BK9B9206A woman walks through an IDP camp in Gwoza, Borno State, Nigeria.

Radio report on deradicalisation in northeast Nigeria and a woman who rejoined Boko Haram after going through nine months of it, RTE, July 16, 2017

‘Inside the headquarters of Boko Haram’s former caliphate’, the Irish Times, July 11, 2017

BK9B9281A burned-out car left in the grounds of a medical centre, now also the site of a mass grave, in Gwoza, northeast Nigeria.

April/May/June – Thomson Reuters Foundation, RTE, IJNET, Well Told, New Statesman (selected)

‘A week of bombings in the birthplace of Boko Haram’, the Irish Times, June 30, 2017

BK9B8904A young boy lies in a ward for the weapon-wounded in Maiduguri State Specialist Hospital, Borno State, Nigeria.

Radio report from Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, as the city marks Eid at a time of heightened tensions in the conflict with Boko Haram (from about 12), RTE, June 25, 2017

BK9B8927A woman cradles her malnourished daughter at an MSF clinic in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria. Some 450,000 children in the region are expected to suffer from severe acute malnourishment this year  

‘Missing Efrem: the human story of our government’s failure to care for child refugees’, the New Statesman, June 20, 2017

‘The map maker who finds the bodies in Ethiopia’s land battle’, Place/Thomson Reuters Foundation, June 20, 2017 (Also up on Reuters, AllAfrica, Kenya’s Star. This is part of a bigger package on resource and land conflicts across the world which saw the pictures of some of the murdered displaced in New York’s Times Square and London’s Canary Wharf)

‘Activists occupy former British women’s prison in protest against cuts’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, June 2, 2017

Radio report from Anjar, an Armenian town two miles from the Syrian border in Lebanon (from about 12), RTE, May 28, 2017

welltoldSpoke on a panel on freelancing at WellTold, the UK’s first longform/narrative journalism conference. Photo via @suchandrikac. The talk was written up by journalism.co.uk

‘IJNET Journalist of the month: Sally Hayden’, May 16, 2017 (in Russian, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish)

Radio report on Syria’s Christians (from about 12), RTE, May 14, 2017

BK9B8229Syrian refugee child in an informal camp in Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, Apr 27, 2017

‘Online ads target Britain’s homeless youths with offer of shelter for sex: charity’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Apr 13, 2017 (republished by DNA India & others)

‘Hungarian charities fear proposed law aims to “discredit” them’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Apr 5, 2017

February/March – VICE, Thomson Reuters Foundation, TIME, RTE, Stellar, the Irish Times (selected)

‘LGBT youth at risk of homelessness after UK housing benefit cuts, charities say’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 31, 2017 (republished by the Irish Independent, the Times of India & others)

Brilliant to be shortlisted for the One World Media ‘New Voice’ award, for my reporting from Nigeria, Ethiopia & Lebanon.

‘Aid reaches Yemen’s Mokha district where thousands are displaced by war’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 24, 2017

‘The reality of why Syrian girls in Jordan are feeling forced into marriage’, Marie Claire UK, Mar 24, 2017

‘Inside the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees’, Irish Times, Mar 22, 2017

BK9B7884Mohammad, father of Zaatari’s 5000th baby, making falafel on the camp’s main shopping street.

‘Girl, Interrupted’, Stellar magazine, April issue (recommended on the Beyond Brunch podcast – from 28 minutes in)

‘To help Iraq, Western world must connect with its everyday people, filmmaker says’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 17, 2016 (republished by Voice of AmericaDaily Mail, Al Arabiya, Relief Web, DNA India, etc.) 

Radio piece on rising rates of child marriage among Syrian refugees on RTE World Report, Mar 12, 2017 (from 11.30)

I wrote a piece in the Beyond Borders magazine produced to mark the first year of the Refugee Journalism Project – which pairs refugee journalists with mentors already established in the UK media industry.

Included in Stellar magazine’s list of ‘100 Irish Women Who Inspire Us‘, which went out to mark International Women’s Day, Mar 8, 2017

My report about Syrian refugee doctors practicing medicine over Whatsapp was broadcast on RTE World Report on Mar 5, 2017 (programme starts at 11.20)

bk9b7335Dr Weshah al-Khafri, a refugee surgeon from Daraa, Syria, who advises war-wounded people back home via WhatsApp

‘This Small Hungarian Town Has Banned ‘Gay Propaganda’ to Become a Far-Right Refuge’, TIME, Mar 2, 2017 (also on Yahoo)

bk9b8196Anna Kiss, a 28-year-old community organiser currently being investigated for “gay propaganda”, interviewed in her apartment in Szeged, Hungary.

Spoke on a panel at Tottenham Court Road Waterstones for an episode of the Stop & Search podcast marking the first anniversary of LEAP UK.

Weekly coverage round-up for Place, the Thomson Reuters Foundation land rights site, Mar 1, 2017 (also did this on Mar 8Feb 15 and Feb 1)

‘Forced back to Syria? Jordan’s unregistered refugees fear deportation’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Feb 22, 2017 (republished by Middle East Monitor, Qatar’s Peninsula, ReutersKhaleej Times, Yahoo, Daily Mail, DNA India, etc.; also in German)

bk9b7671This 12-year-old works every day delivering vegetables to help pay rent. His mom is considering pulling him out of school completely. As unregistered refugees, the family could be deported if caught by the authorities. Pictured in east Amman, Jordan.

‘British Museum trains Iraqi archaeologists to rebuild post-Islamic State’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Feb 22, 2017 (republished by Arab News, DNA India, etc.)

bk9b7496A Syrian refugee child is treated for a congenital hip dislocation in a hospital in Amman, Jordan. (That’s iodine, not blood).

‘Inside the Middle Eastern Hospital 3D-Printing for War Victims’, VICE, Feb 4, 2017

bk9b7166-2In the waiting room of MSF’s reconstructive surgery hospital in Amman, Jordan.

‘Syrian refugees in Lebanon find relative safety but little security’, Irish Times, Feb 4, 2017