All Yayayayayayayaya!
Paula (to Boxer) You alright?
Boxer It’s my little one’s birthday, an’ all.
Paula Why didn’t you go back?
Boxer Can’t afford the ferry. The ex wouldn’t have me anyway.
Paula You barmy bugger. You haven’t called her, have you?
Boxer Lost my phone. Call this a fucking father?
Paula Use this.
She gives him her phone.
You’re doing well, love. Stay out the Eritrean nightclub, yeah? Call her now.
Boxer Cheers, Paula. You’re a diamond.
Sam (to Beth) Do you want to stay in a hotel tonight?
Beth Sorry?
Sam A nice hotel. Nice-ish.
Beth Erm …
Sam Hear me out. We’ve been sleeping in tents for three months. My back’s stiff –
Beth What’s stiff?
Sam I’ve had the same stone in my spine for too long. I say nice-ish hotel, TV, the World Service, wi-fi – remember that? Maybe a bottle of wine –
Beth I’m quite at home, thanks.
Sam Room service? The option of having a bloody bath? There we are. You know you want a bath. I can see it in your eyes.
Beth No, you can’t.
Sam We don’t have to share a bed or anything, if that’s –
Beth Say that again?
Sam I just mean, we can get a room with lots of beds. Three beds. Four beds, even! We can keep swapping in the night.
Beth Swapping?
Sam Forget it!
Beth receives a call. She answers.
Beth Hello?
Sam I’ll go back to my tent.
Beth Where?
Sam And my stone.
Beth OK, stay calm.
Sam My cold, hard stone.
Beth Don’t say anything. Don’t do anything. I’m coming.
Sam What is it?
Beth Okot He’s been arrested.
Outside the detention centre.
Guard Oui?
Beth Hello, I’m looking for a boy. He was arrested a few hours ago.
Guard This is France, you speak French.
Beth OK … Je suis … en train de … trouver quelqu’un.
Guard British?
Beth Oui. Je suis ici pour … voir un … jeun garçon.
Guard No.
Beth He’s not in here.
Safi He is. Ask again.
Beth Il est soudanais … Il est détenu ici … Il a dixsept ans.
Guard Nom?
Beth Okot Sherif.
Guard Pardon?
Beth Okot Sherif.
Guard Non, comment vous appelez-vous?
Beth Oh. Bethan James.
He leaves.
Est-il ici? Je dois le voir maintenant.
He returns with Okot, who is obviously injured.
Guard Dix minutes.
The Guard leaves them.
Beth Okot, what the fuck? What happened?
He doesn’t respond.
Have they asked how old you are?
Safi He said he’s twenty.
Beth What? Why did you say that?!
Safi If they think he’s a child, they will keep him in France.
Beth Have you signed anything?
Safi They gave him a document.
Beth In French?
Okot nods.
Did you have a translator, a lawyer?
Safi That must be a joke.
Beth Did you sign it? Okot?
Okot Yes.
Beth Why would you do that?
The Guard re-enters.
Guard You must go now.
Beth We’re not finished, you said ten minutes.
Guard There is problem. You must leave.
Beth This is madness!
Guard Maintenant!
Beth I’m not leaving!
Guard You are in France, you speak French!
Beth This is not France! He’s a seventeen-year-old boy! Look at him! This is not France! You’ve forced him to sign documents! He doesn’t speak French! He should have a translator, that’s the law. This is not France. I have friends. Lawyers. Human rights lawyers. In Paris. And if I call them they are going to hit you so hard. No translator, forced to sign, seventeen years old, cuts, bruises all over his body. Where did he get those? There’s a European Convention on the Rights of the Child, don’t you dare say this is France! I’m serious. Look at me. I will make your life hell. We’re walking out of here today, now. I don’t care what he’s signed. You’re going to rip it up and let him go.
Guard looks her up and down.
Guard OK.
Beth Excuse me?
Guard Go! And if I see him again, you won’t.
They step out of the detention centre.
Beth Fuck. I don’t know anyone in Paris.
Pause. She looks at Okot.
Do you want to stay in a hotel tonight?
The Hotel Meurice.
Safi You know it’s illegal to stay in a hotel without papers.
Beth I know.
Safi And it’s against the law in France to aid refugees.
Beth Yeah, thanks, Safi.
Beth and Okot enter a room.
Right, let’s get you cleaned up. (As she goes into the bathroom to get a bowl of water.) Were you trying on the trains? You should be careful on the trains, people die on the trains.
Okot is left alone with Safi.
Safi Do you want to talk? Talking sometimes helps.
Okot If I talk to her. You think she would understand?
Pause.
Safi I think she could.
Pause. Okot takes his top off. He has scars, old and new, all over his body.
Talk to her. Tell her.
Beth re-enters.
Beth Oh, fuck. Oh, my God.
Pause.
Okot I am dead.
Beth What?
Okot Dead.
Beth You’re not dead. You’re here with me.
Okot Dead. A refugee dies many times.
Beth I know –
Okot You know?
Beth I didn’t mean that. I mean I can imagine.
A long pause.
Okot What do you know of me?
Beth You’re from Sudan.
Okot Where?
Beth Darfur?
Okot What do you know of Darfur?
Beth There are lots of problems in Darfur.
Okot What problems?
Beth A genocide … When … an entire people is …
Okot A people?
Beth A race or religion. When a people is –
Okot People is your father. People is your mother. What do you know about the Mediterranean?
Beth I know about the boats.
He is silent. She is forced to continue. She is uneasy.
The boats are small. Too many people are put inside. By the smugglers. Lots of people, lots of the boats sink. It’s obviously really dangerous.
Okot Yes …
Beth Hundreds of people try to cross every day. It’s tragic.
Silence.
It’s a tragedy.
Silence.
I don’t know.
Okot Sahara is more dangerous. You are in a truck six days and six nights. If truck breaks down, you die. If you fall out, you die. If you run out of water, you die. If militia find you, you die. If you don’t keep warm at night, you die. If you die in the Sahara your body is never found. If I die in the Sahara, my body is never found. Six days, six nights.
Beth Did you do it alone?
Okot I survive with my uncle.
Safi He thought he was his uncle.
Okot I have never been this far from my mother … I cannot be boy any more … First death. You know about Libya.
Beth No …
Okot You must know about Libya! Everyone about Libya say same thing: Libya is worst place in world! Everyone has gun. Big problems for black people. But at least we are here. One step further.
/> Beth That’s good.
Safi Go on.
Okot In Tripoli you look for a middle man.
Safi You know this word? Middle man.
Okot He takes you to the smuggler. The smuggler pays him. And you pay the smuggler. Some people pay $2,000. We pay $400. I thought this was fair! Pay what you can! I thought we go to harbour. But no. They send us to mazraa.
Safi Compound. Warehouse.
Okot It is prison. Out of city. Nowhere away. You know it as maybe … (To Safi, Arabic.) Hell?
Safi Hell.
Okot Mazraa. They keep you. Two months, maybe. Little food, little water. Shit-place in corner. Torture. I have seen men do to the teeth. Slice this muscle on thumb. Flip coin to choose which toe. And other things you cannot know.
I lose my uncle here also … I get to know my uncle.
Safi It’s not his uncle.
Okot For women … it is even more difficult. You know. I know you know, because you are scared now. You are scared to think mazraa.
Safi She doesn’t know. They don’t know.
Okot Your mind cannot think.
Safi Do you think we’d be here if they knew?
Okot They lie me down. Lift concrete stone on my back, heavy. They make a video on my phone to send to my mother to see. I must ask her for more money. More money, more, more, more! I think of my mother … I think of Darfur. Darfur is the most beautiful place in the world. Have you seen the sun rise in Darfur?
Beth No.
Okot You never need to see it rise again. My mother is like librarian. She takes books around town and villages, and we sing and eat aseeda and shorbet adas, and if you are lucky a big white Nile fish from a traveller from the east. Last time I saw my mother she was crying. You’ve seen your mother cry?
Beth Yes.
Okot Me too. But never like this. She comes close to me, and grabs me, ‘You must go,’ she says. ‘The men have come to look for you. Go now. Go to UK. There you will be safe.’ A man arrived who I had never seen before. My mother says he is my uncle. She gives him $400. All the money she has. She has nothing more.
I think of her watching this video. She will be crying. She has nothing more. She cannot pay. I think of her watching the video.
Second death.
Pause. Okot can’t continue.
Safi Finally you are taken to the boats, yes?
Okot Yes.
Safi The coastguard has been paid. The local militia. Was it a big boat?
Okot Small boat.
Safi Rubber?
Okot Yes.
Safi A Zodiac. Fifty people.
Ali You are given a package with a balloon to put your phone in, GPS device, a life jacket –
Safi You hope the life jacket is real.
Yasin You pray the life jacket is real.
Ali Real or not, fifteen dinar for package.
Okot I am in first boat.
Safi The first?
Residents of the Jungle have gathered round to listen. They look at each other, anxious.
Norullah Big problem.
Okot We go out to bigger boat.
Safi A fishing trawler. Fifteen metres long.
Ali Painted black so the coastguard can’t see.
Safi Wooden. Strong. But old.
Okot The less money you pay, the worse your place on boat. Pay what you can. Now you know.
Beth Yes. Now I know.
Safi Rich people go on top deck. Poor go underneath. Below sea level. In the hold.
Okot I am pushed down near engine. It is going in my face.
Safi The Zodiacs keep coming. This boat is for a hundred people. Here there are seven hundred.
Okot People on top of people on top of people.
Maz Eighty degrees.
Yohannes Ninety degrees.
Omid A hundred.
Okot The heat is unbearable.
Safi No smugglers make this journey, do you know this? You are left alone. Point in direction and go.
Okot Stay still or boat will sink, you drown!
Ali Wait for international waters, then phone for help.
Okot Suddenly I am thinking I shouldn’t be here. I try to get out. I shout. I cannot move. I hear water outside. If boat have problem I am dead. All of below, we are dead.
Helene comes forward with Amal, singing gently.
Pressed to me is mother and daughter. She maybe three years old. I think what will she remember. Mother is singing to stop tears.
People join in with their own songs.
Why is everyone singing?
Safi They are not singing. They are praying.
Okot Suddenly I am praying.
Safi If you stand on the shores at night of Lesvos or Kos, you hear this sound from the boats, like the sea itself is praying.
Okot A man cries out loud.
Mohammed comes forward.
And at moment of his most tears, he shits. He has tight teeth and is shamed for what has happened. He tries to say sorry but he cannot stop crying. A girl is sick. So another person is sick. So I am sick.
Beth Okot!
Okot Panic cause the boat to tip. The tip causes more panic. Shouts of leak. Maybe it is piss. Please be piss.
Safi It is not piss.
Norullah comes forward.
Okot Then the floor turn round and hundreds of bodies spin in the hold.
Safi Water rushes in.
Norullah A man shouts. ‘Take off your shoes! Take off your shoes!’
Okot I rip my trouser off because a man is holding on to me. Another man is pushing up against the door.
Mohammed Push! Push!
Okot The door swings out –
Salar comes forward.
Safi Five minutes he is under the water.
Okot Five minutes.
Safi Think.
Okot I am dead. Third death.
Safi recites prayer.
Real death.
Residents of the Jungle have closed around Beth.
Safi You want to ask a question.
Beth How did you survive?
Helene We didn’t.
Beth But you’re here now.
Okot This is not us.
Safi We’re different now. New.
Okot Why are you here, Beth?
Mohammed Why are you not at your home?
Safi What can we give you?
Okot Before, I could give you anything. I could give you myself.
Helene What do we have now?
Okot This journey. This story.
Safi And you have heard this story before. A thousand times, I am sure.
Okot Now you know. It isn’t me. But now it is me.
Safi’s phone rings, he gives it to Beth. She answers.
Many phones ring.
Safi Friday 13th November, terrorists murdered a hundred and thirty people in Paris, in restaurants, a stadium, a theatre. The deadliest attack in France since the Second World War.
At the same time in the Jungle, a Sudanese man in his wooden house wrapped himself in blankets and fell asleep with a lit candle. It set fire to half of Sudan.
It was reported that the two events were connected. They were not. It was also reported that a Syrian passport was found with the body of one of the attackers. It was fake. But does it matter?
In that moment, the refugee, terror, the Jungle and me, were bound together. Alan Kurdi changed everything, and the night of 13th November changed everything again.
The horror I escaped had found me.
Residents of the Jungle hold a vigil for Paris.
Signs reading #Pray4Paris are lifted.
A minute of silence ends.
Derek Thank you, everyone. Safi is writing an open letter, from all the citizens of the Jungle, condemning the attacks –
Boxer It’s got nothing to do with them.
Derek We know this –
Boxer They’re running from the same people what did it!
Derek And that is what the letter will say. Moham
med.
Mohammed Thank you, Derek. The pictures I see in the news, I recognise. It is Darfur. I know the pain. It is why I’m here.
Salar It is the streets of Kabul.
Yasin Basra.
Ali Halabja.
Yohannes Irecha.
Mohammed Today we are all Paris. The fire means many Sudanese people are homeless. I want to thank Salar for opening his restaurant in our time of need, and the volunteers who worked through the night. Without this humanity, we would be lost.
Derek Thank you, Mohammed. Does anyone else have any reflections?
Paula Last night was an absolute clusterfuck. What happened to our plans? Why were people firefighting? Make breaks! That’s it. We could have saved more homes. It’s a miracle no one died here.
Derek There are lessons to learn, of course –
Paula No candles in a shanty town made of wood. This can never happen again.
Ali What about the rumours?
Helene What rumours?
Ali That the fire was not an accident. My boys saw men running up Rue de Garennes.
Helene Fascists meet on this road every night. They attack with metal bars.
Boxer Fuckers.
Ali We’ll send a group of men to meet them tonight.
Derek No, no, no! Do not do that. We do not know what caused this.
Paula Things need to change. Volunteers were drunk. Booze, spliffs, fuck knows what. I’m not naming names –
Boxer Oh, fuck off, Paula!
Derek There is a time and a place. This is a test of our strength. We need to come together now.
Salar He was asleep in my restaurant while the fire was burning. Children were screaming and he was on the floor.
Paula Salar, I’ll deal with him. (Shouting.) Get a grip or fuck off! Has anyone been to a proper UN refugee camp? They have staff. Rotas. Plans in preparation for shit like last night.
Derek This is not a UN refugee camp. This is us. And some credit is due for how we managed. Safi, can you please help –
The Jungle Page 5