In 2006, an
Afghani widow decided to send her two oldest sons to the West, paying $8,000 to
get them to Italy. Since the Taliban was
trying to recruit them as freedom fighters and the U.S. army was trying to
convince them to become spies, she felt they would be safe only if out of the country. This book tells the story of 12-year-old
Gulwali Passarlay’s 12-month journey to England.
The book
sheds light on the plight of refugees, especially unaccompanied minors. Gulwali’s trek was certainly harrowing; it
was physically and emotionally traumatic.
He was at the mercy of smugglers who see refugees only as their income
generators. He mentions that one very
frustrating aspect of his travels was not knowing where he was or what the next
stage of the trip would entail: “One
thing was clear, this was a highly organized infrastructure. . . . I felt constantly vulnerable but where
I felt most unsafe was in the hands of the different drivers, most of whom I
guessed had been recruited locally and didn’t know who they were working for,
or at the handover points when we had no idea who we would be passed on to next”
(185).
What is
also emphasized is how powerless refugees are:
“One of the strangest things about this journey was how whenever a
smuggler or driver gave us an instruction, we simply followed it. . . . Without
questioning or really even thinking, we put our lives into the hands of
strangers, time and again. We had no
choice. When they said come, we little
lost sheep had to follow” (167). Gulwali
made friends who helped him, but he realized that “On this journey everyone was
out for themselves; in part that was because they were so helpless and
powerless” (187). One passage that
really struck me mentions the true cost of the journey: “the truth was that were all so desperate
that we quickly came to resent anybody who had something we did not – the extra
mouthful of water, a tiny bit more floor space, a filthy pillow, or a few
grains of rice. Our humanity was
slipping away – being stolen away.
Perhaps that was the real price of this journey” (90). The stay in the Jungle in Calais was one of
the most traumatic for Gulwali: “In
their own countries, many of these people had power, even the respect of their communities. Here in the Jungle we were barely human. We were the beasts that gave this place its
name” (294).
Gulwali was
occasionally helped by people he encountered.
After being treated nicely by a poor Kurdish family, Gulwali realized
that some people harboured refugees because they needed money: “They certainly weren’t getting rich from
it. They were poor people who needed
work and money. Were they really so
different from us? . . . Yes, there were some bad people – criminals and
kidnappers, but most people were decent” (175).
Later, he concluded, “I was beginning to realize that there were kind
people around who were truly moved by the plight of refugees” (266). Unfortunately, those good people were
certainly outnumbered.
The treatment
of the French police seems especially callous:
“Whenever we got caught, the police would just let us loose again –
providing we were a long way from the Jungle.
If not, they took a vicious pleasure in driving us to a remote location
and dumping us at the side of the road. . . . During the day, the police loved
to raid the Jungle, probably because they knew we were likely to be
resting. It was common to have my
charity-donated blanket pulled from me, a screaming police officer shouting in
French in my face. They would move us
on, beating any guys who resisted. We
would then be forced to stand shivering in the cold while they questioned us
about things we knew they didn’t want to hear answers to” (292 – 293).
What is
also noteworthy is that once a refugee is physically safe, the suffering is not
over. The trauma of their experiences
leaves emotional scars. Gulwali’s
depression and suicide attempts attest to the long-term effects refugees suffer. Gulwali discusses being “consumed with guilt,
confusion, and frustration at the alien nation I was struggling so hard to live
in” and feeling “dislocated and full of loss” (343). He warns that extremist radical groups “prey
on the vulnerable and lonely. They offer
friendship and brotherhood and are masters at seizing on and manipulating a
person’s traumas or unresolved issues” (343 – 344). He advocates for “solid connections” to a
community and
opportunities “to be heard” to help refugees from “being drawn into destructive
groups that only promote hatred” (344).
The book is
written in simple prose but sometimes Gulwali’s voice sounds too mature and worldly. He makes references to things a 12-year-old
boy who grew up as he did would not know.
Sometimes his behaviour does not seem realistic: “But, because I was calm following our
prayers, a sense of purpose came over me.
Just as in the prison yard in Maku, when I had felt it my duty to
negotiate our way out and take people without money with me, I believed the
three of us – Mehran, Jawad, and I – had come here for a reason: to rescue these men and take them with us. .
. . I felt that by acting as a group we could make it through somehow. If we showed the old man a united front
instead of everyone shouting, crying, and pleading, we might get out of there”
(187).
I really
enjoyed the first section of the novel where Gulwali describes his life in
Afghanistan. Reading about Pashtun
culture was interesting. Learning about Pashtunwali, the strict rules of social
etiquette, such as how to treat a guest, to which every Pashtun abides, put
some historic events in perspective: “The
United States had threatened to attack if [the Taliban] didn’t hand [bin Laden]
over, but the Taliban refused because, under the rules of Pashtunwali, he was our guest, and a guest is under the protection
of the host” (30).
Some parts
of the book I found rather tedious. It
was also difficult to keep track of Gulwali’s various friends because they are
not really developed except as they help him, and one stop along his journey was
often so much like the next. Of course I
feel guilty describing the book as tedious because my feelings are nothing when
compared to the tedium Gulwali sometimes endured as he waited for the next leg
of his journey.
The book is
one everyone should read. It definitely
made me realize that I won a lottery when I was born in Canada. Readers will have a better understanding of
why refugees choose to leave their home countries (often having few options)
and what they endure. If a reader does
not come away with more sympathy for them (and the families they might leave
behind), I despair.
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