Refugee Boy

Product Information

Refugee Boy' is, as you'd expect, a story that doesn't leave the reader indifferent, as we live in a world where millions of people are seeking asylum and refugee elsewhere especially in Europe, especially in the UK as this book shows. How do you think being a young refugee, like Alem, differs from the experience of an adult refugee?

His father soon turns up at his house and they go for dinner (spaghetti). The following Monday, Alem comes home to find that his father had gone to the Home Office to submit his asylum application, but was arrested and taken to Campsfield House immigration detention centre. Nicholas will also represent Alem's father and apply for their dank bail. Bail is awarded, and Alem's father is put into a grimy hostel in Forest Gate, and it is revealed that both Alem's and his father's application for asylum will be heard together. This chapter sounds different than other chapter of the novel because its sound more dramatic, helpless, angry and showing his strength. The other sound was informative, balance and controlled. He shows responsibility, development of his knowledge by dealing with problematic situation and trying to adjust in a new environment. This chapter seems so realistic. It is a simple chapter to read because it has a good solid plot and structure of the book makes it easier to understand roles of each character. And he is the enemy.' Then he turned and pointed the rifle at Alem's forehead. 'And he is a mongrel." In any case, do read this book if you can, and if you have the chance support refugee-helping organizations such as the Refugee Council and others alike in your countries, and fight the populistic narratives that dehumanize people seeking refuge in another country, especially if fleeing war and conflict zones, or any sort of unfair prosecution. Just remember: today around 40% of the world’s displaced are children like Alem. And Interestingly enough, Ethiopia shelters the largest number anywhere in the world of unaccompanied and separated children.

Reviews

Chapter 9: Alem begins school and makes friends with a boy named Robert. That evening Mariam comes to see Alem, he brings a letter from his father. It contains news that Alem’s mother is missing. Alem was told to leave Ethiopia and Eritrea and had to go to Britain and become an asylum seeker. Alem faced a lot of problems in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Alem awaits his father at home with the certificate but instead his social worker comes to the door along with a police officer to inform him that his father has been shot and killed while leaving the London branch of EAST. Alem is returned to the Fitzgerald's' and receives a letter with his appeal date for 27 March.

While Alem is facing all of these new challenges, he's slowly starting to make new friends. I really like this part of the book, with Alem and his foster sister, Ruth. Alem shows Ruth a photo of him and his parents. It’s just a normal trip to London – isn’t it? Alem is seriously excited. He’s never been out of Ethiopia before. It’s his first foreign holiday! He and his dad have a great few days together – until Alem wakes up in their B&B one morning to find his dad gone. At first Alem is stumped. But then the hotel owner hands him a letter from his dad: a letter that explains the unthinkable. Because of Ethopia’s political problems, he and Alem’s mother felt it would be safer to take Alem to Britain and leave him there. Now Alem is on his own – in the hands of social services and the Refugee Council. What kind of future awaits this refugee boy?Chapter 1: Alem and his father Mr Kelo, travel to Heathrow and go to a hotel in the village of Datchet ( close to Reading). They spend the following day sightseeing in London. During the exploration of the home Alem meets another worker named Tom Whittaker and a man named Dave he notices a boy sitting by himself and is informed that this boys name is Mustafa. While he is still being showed around the place he meets his soon to be enemy Sweeney for the first time in the smoker's room. Sweeny later demands Alem to get some biscuits. When Alem refused to get biscuits for Sweeney they start arguing, Tom hears the argument and Alem explains to Tom the whole situation and then Tom makes Sweeny apologise for anti social behaviour. Alem looked on terrified as the soldier shot a number of bullets into the floor around the feet of his mother and father. His father screamed with fear. 'Please, leave us!''We only want peace.' Chapter 24: The News There is a news report about Mr Kelo’s death. The police think the killing was political. Told from the point of view of teenager Alem Kelo, born out of Eritrea and Ethiopia and unfairly punished for it amidst the conflicts between the two countries, we are given a perspective of what the life of an asylum seeker might look like. This is special, this is important to bring awareness to. Despite the tragedies, I found this story uplifting because Alem, although losing his roots in the UK to the care of excellent people, and brought to a life of education and good friends. I'm not sure, however, how many young unaccompanied and separated children refugees, and asylum seekers have such support in their daunting journeys toward safety and acceptance.

For its emotional appeal, I rank this book at a one or two. The book might have had more emotional punch if it were written in first person. It's an omniscient narrator but the perspective sometimes shifts to only Alem's point of view. In one jarring scene, it shifts completely away from him in an attempt to increase suspense. Chapter 16: Alem and Robert enjoy their bike ride however Alem’s bike is stolen on his way home. Unexpectedly, Mr Kelo comes to see him. He and Alem go out for dinner.Robert (Roberto) Alem’s friend from school, he always smokes and he tried to get Alem to smoke. His real name is Roberto Fernandez.

All the characters behaviors in the children's house show how unorganized asylum systems. However there are some people who are emotionally attach in their past for e.g. Stanley Burton is mentally ill but no one in the children's house take him seriously about the effects his having on his mind. On his own, and in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council, Alem lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear something from his father. Then he meets car-obsessed Mustapha, the lovely 'out-of-your-league' Ruth and dangerous Sweeney – three unexpected allies who spur him on in his fight to be seen as more than just the Refugee Boy. Chapter 21: Alem moves into the hotel. The protest group has a campaign meeting. There is a benefit gig at the school.I also enjoyed chapter 27 (last chapter), I felt it sends a powerful message out and it certainly made the book feel finished and complete. Do you know anyone who has had to leave their home country due to conflict or difficult circumstances? Chapter 22: Hundreds of people attend a rally in support of Alem and Mr Kelo and present a petition to the local MP. Alem is a refugee from Ethiopia. His parents are both Eritrean and Ethiopian. Alem then escapes to England from a violent civil war in Badme, which at the time of the novel (2000/1999), was disputed to be either in Ethiopia or in Eritrea. In 1991, 14-year-old Alem and his father are in the capital of Eritrea, his mother's home country. When Alem is ten years old, he and his family move to Harar in Ethiopia, his father's country. In Ethiopia, his father gets a better job within the postal service, but Alem's mother loses her job because the Ethiopian workers say they are "at war with Eritrea, so they will not work with someone from Eritrea." Alem's father is then told by his co-workers that he must leave his wife because she is Eritrean and therefore "the enemy". The mother was held at point blank before pushed on the bus.