Includes index.

A refugee story -- Prologue : the lost boys of Cairo -- 1. The homeless and the rightless -- 2. Gli Extracomunitari : Sicily's boat people -- 3. The fence : the migrants of San Diego and Tijuana -- 4. Fair go : Australia and the policy of mandatory detention -- 5. Newcastle and the politics of dispersal -- 6. Little better than cockroaches : Guinea's long-term camps -- 7. The corridors of memory : the Naqba and the Palestinians of Lebanon -- 8. The illness of exile -- 9. Going home : Afghanistan -- 10. Dead dreams : the Dinkas of Oulu -- Epilogue : a mode of being.

"In Human Cargo, Caroline Moorehead takes readers on a journey to understand why millions of people are forced to abandon their homes, possessions, and families in order to find a place where they may, quite literally, be allowed to live. In spite of the fact that refugees surround us - recent UN estimates suggest that their numbers approach 20 million - few grasp the scale of their presence. Moorehead's experience living and working with refugees puts a human face on the news, providing indelible portraits of not only refugees but also the countries from which they fled, as well as those that host them, the men and women who help them, and, finally, those who have not."--BOOK JACKET.