Refugee: The Diary of Ali Ismail by Alan Sunderland
Ali is chosen as the one member of his family to escape the Taliban by fleeing Afghanistan into Pakistan. From there a people smuggler is paid to get him to safety. “What is the value of a life? Four Thousand dollars.”
But safety is a relative term. Ali ends up on a fishing boat in the Indian Ocean without a motor. In the distance they see a naval vessel and think that they are saved! But the navy is Australian, and the policy is imprisonment. This book is set in the days when the refugees were welcomed to Australia by Woomera. The bulk of the story is about the long year spent in the desert, the changing mood of the place during the Tampa ‘crisis’ and the sudden tightening of regulations on September 11. The story is interspersed with hope, a day at the beach, even a chance to go to an Australian school. But these events only serve to highlight the bleakness of daily life.
This book is one of many quiet protests by children’s authors about the treatment of children in detention centres. It is told soberly, and realistically without the humour of Boy Overboard or Girl Underground. But it seems sanitised for younger readers, and that trivialises the experience. Sorry, but I think there is better writing available in this growing theme.
