The Jungle

by Joe Robertson

  Safi It’s very important that we … Look, this is …

  He hesitates. Salar takes over.

  Salar This is not good enough. France is in a state of emergency. The police have more power. Last night was nearly Jungle finished.

  Safi Salar, we have to be careful here –

  Salar Let me speak. Refugees: remember why you are here. Good chance may soon be no chance. And volunteers.

  Mohammed Don’t divide us, Salar –

  Salar We have trusted you with our lives. If you are here for holiday. Or because this is better than your home, leave. We do not want you. The last thing Zhangal needs is more refugees.

  It starts to rain. Hard.

  Paula And that’s all we need.

  Derek Rest, everyone. Stay dry. Stay strong. Don’t lose hope. Safi, I need that letter as soon as possible.

  Safi I’m collecting the signatures.

  People disperse.

  Sam Safi, we need to organise a meeting to plan the rebuild. Can I leave that with you?

  Safi OK, Sam.

  Beth Safi, I need your help. Okot …

  Safi I know.

  Beth He lost his house. I really need you.

  Safi Leave it with me.

  Beth leaves.

  Salar (to Norullah) You do not go to the school any more.

  Safi What?

  Salar Don’t get involved. (Pashto.) You heard me. You don’t go to the school any more.

  Safi is left alone, stunned, spat out.

  SIX

  THE RAIN

  Beth My mum called yesterday in tears. She said, ‘Have you heard about the boy who died on top of a train? It’s so terrible, I can’t stop crying.’ My friend Jade at Bristol sends me emails, links to Guardian articles: ‘Growing number of unaccompanied minors in Calais.’ I get messages all the time from friends and family saying they’re so fucking proud of me. That they’re so fucking angry. All this anger is everywhere. And still, this … Look around, Sam. Look. I’m numb. What the fuck are we actually doing?

  Sam Something.

  Beth Okot has no one. His house burned down last night. He could have died.

  Sam Thanks to you, he didn’t.

  Beth He might still.

  Sam I can build him another one.

  Beth It’s not enough. I’ve got to get him out.

  Sam That’s not our responsibility.

  Beth Why not?

  Sam You run the school. I build houses. If we stick to that we can help.

  Beth So don’t actually try to change anything?

  Sam If I didn’t build houses, people would die.

  Beth Maybe that’s a good thing.

  Sam Seriously?

  Beth Maybe the government would be forced to act.

  Sam I’m not going to let people die if I can stop it.

  Beth We’re just preserving it. We’re part of the problem.

  Sam I think you’re upset.

  Beth Fuck you.

  Sam Maybe you should take a break. Go home for a bit.

  Beth I don’t need to go home! Okot can’t go home!

  Sam Then let’s go for a weekend somewhere.

  Beth It’s always weekends and fucking hotels with you.

  Sam Fine! What would you change? How would you solve it?

  Beth Are you really asking me that question?

  Sam Yes. You’re Hollande. What do you do? Open the border? Let everyone through! The Jungle disappears and Okot’s safe. But next week another ten thousand people arrive in Calais expecting to get across.

  Beth You’re being a wanker.

  Sam Or don’t do that, but get rid of the Jungle because, yes, it’s fucking awful, and you know it. Get rid of it, straight away. Then there are ten thousand people you have to house and clothe and feed. Where do you house them? Who pays? It’s expensive. There’ll be uproar. And crucially, they don’t want to be housed! They want to get to Britain! They’re quite happy here and they won’t go without a fight. Add into that the election here next year, Le Pen is doing pretty fucking well. And the referendum in six months’ time, Farage is doing pretty fucking well there too. And while we’re being honest, Calais is tiny! One camp in the north of France. There are sixty-five million refugees in the world! So come on! What the fuck do we do?

  Beth You’re asking me how to solve the refugee crisis?

  Sam Yeah, I am. How would you solve the refugee crisis, Beth?

  Safi enters with Okot Norullah is eating a plate of food.

  Safi Talk to each other. This stops now.

  Pause.

  Norullah You want some food? Is good food. Not Lidl. Carrefour.

  Okot They don’t let us in Carrefour.

  Norullah I steal from trash. Have some.

  He pushes the plate towards Okot.

  Your mother in Sudan? My father dead too. Taliban shoot.

  He mimics a gunshot.

  You here alone?

  Okot Uncle has good chance.

  Norullah My friend good chance too. Leaves me in Jungle. Fucking dick.

  Okot Salar looks after you.

  Norullah Hate Salar. He no let me go school. He make me fucking work.

  Okot You get money?

  Norullah Yeah, wanna see? (Showing a big wad of notes.) This not all.

  Okot Where’s the rest?

  Norullah I’m not telling you, black man thief.

  Okot Crazy fucking Afghan!

  They smile.

  Norullah Your house gone?

  Okot Yeah.

  Norullah Shit, man. It was big fucking fire.

  Okot I’ve seen bigger.

  Norullah Me too.

  Okot I went close.

  Norullah Me too. How close?

  Okot Really close. I thought I would burn. Smoke was coming from my clothes.

  Norullah Cool. They build you new house?

  Okot I don’t know yet. UK boy is shit.

  Norullah Yellow coat? He no give me house. He only likes Sudan. But my tent fucking best tent in Jungle. Many plastic. Is warm at night, no wet.

  Pause.

  Stay with me if you want.

  Okot Really?

  Norullah You have to leave if my girlfriends come.

  Okot You have girlfriends?

  Norullah Norullah is big man. Many girlfriends. From all Europe. They visit me all time. My Turkey girlfriend I met in Istanbul. She is a come soon. My Greece girlfriend I met in Athens. Sometimes she just turn up! Girlfriends from Macedonia, Serbia, Hungaria, Germany, Paris, and sometime they all come one time! So, big problem. But yeah, you can stay.

  Okot You need UK girlfriend.

  Norullah One day.

  Okot One day.

  Norullah Soon.

  Okot I’ll stay with you.

  Norullah Cool. Wanna go see Carrefour trash?

  Okot OK.

  They leave together.

  A meeting in Salar’s restaurant.

  Derek Safi, we’ve started here.

  Safi Sorry.

  Derek We want to show you plans for the rebuild of Sudan.

  Sam Many Sudanese people were displaced by the fire, so we’re using it as an opportunity, a complete redesign. Proper town planning.

  Mohammed That means wooden houses for everyone. Real streets. An access road. Show him on the map.

  Sam Here, from Chemin des Dunes, right through the camp to the main entrance here.

  Mohammed It will make distributions easier. Tell him about the streets.

  Salar enters, and stays on the other side of the room.

  Sam We’re excited about the streets. It’s a grid plan. Every house will be numbered. And you know how bad the flooding is, so all streets will have irrigation ditches, and two layers of hardcore.

  Safi Is this possible?

  Sam Yes. Imagine it. Ahmed lives at Number 15, Street 6, and he suffers from an illness, we can work with MSF to take doctors and medicines right to his door by car. If he needs an ambulance, it can drive right to him. If
lawyers need to talk to him, they’ll know exactly where to find him. And that will be the same for everyone.

  Safi Everyone in Sudan.

  Sam This is the future of the Jungle.

  Derek What do you think, Safi?

  Safi I mean, it sounds … It sounds fantastic.

  Salar How long will this take?

  Sam Three weeks.

  Salar How many volunteers?

  Sam For it to work, I’ll need everyone.

  Salar Ah.

  Sam So I can do it quickly and move on to the other areas.

  Salar I see.

  Derek What do you think, Salar?

  Salar I am thinking how I will explain it to my people.

  Mohammed Tell them we rebuild after the fire.

  Salar They will say Sudanese are good builders, why do you need all this help?

  Mohammed Hundreds my people lose their homes.

  Salar How many Afghans still live in tents?

  Sam Are you saying we shouldn’t rebuild?

  Salar No.

  Sam What are you saying?

  Salar Send some volunteers to Sudan while the rest build in the other areas.

  Sam I’m not passing up this opportunity.

  Salar You say opportunity like it is a good thing.

  Derek It isn’t good for anyone.

  Salar Safi has said it. For Sudan, it is fantastic.

  Mohammed Oh, come on, Salar!

  Sam I can’t work like this. He opposes everything I do.

  Salar I meet Afghans every day who say they receive less food, less clothes, less houses –

  Mohammed This isn’t true!

  Salar But they feel it. And then all they hear is ‘crazy fucking Afghans’. This meeting. Did you not think I should have been invited? You are holding it in my restaurant. Everything you do affects the whole Jungle.

  Sam I thought you didn’t want our help.

  Salar I don’t. I want to be in UK. But as elder, I will speak for my people. I will make sure they are treated fairly.

  Derek Safi, can you please help here?

  Safi What do you want me to say, Derek? These are legitimate concerns. I can’t solve every fucking problem!

  Sam Tell me what you want.

  Salar I want to know what I say to my people when they see only building in Sudan.

  The women and children’s centre. Paula, Helene and Little Amal are sorting through lots of donations.

  Beth enters in a sodden raincoat.

  Beth Dublin III.

  Paula Nice to see you too.

  Beth I need to get Okot out.

  Paula Beth –

  Beth He’s falling apart.

  Paula Not a single kid has made it over.

  Beth Why not? You’ve been talking about it for months.

  Paula Why do you think? The fucking Mayflower doesn’t want them.

  Beth It’s got nothing to do with her. It’s the law.

  Paula And we are doing everything we can to fight it, believe me.

  Helene If you are worried, you get him hostel –

  Beth He won’t. He’ll run.

  Paula Then you need to keep him safe here, in the Jungle, like the rest of them. Focus on the school, Beth. And yourself. Are you alright?

  Beth I’m fine.

  Paula You don’t look it. Here, sit. Tea, drink.

  Boxer appears in the doorway carrying a huge box of donations.

  Boxer Where do you want this lot?

  Paula One more step and I’ll chop your bollocks off.

  Boxer Too late. Ex has them in a jar on her mantelpiece.

  Paula Think you’re funny, do you? Women and Children’s Centre. Clue’s in the name.

  Boxer I’m bloody helping you!

  Paula You’re atoning. Now piss off, before I turn you into glue.

  Boxer Charming …

  He drops the box and leaves.

  Paula I think everyone needs to calm the fuck down.

  She lights a cigarette.

  Deep breath …

  She takes a long drag.

  Now, doesn’t that feel better. Helene, why don’t you tell Beth your news?

  Helene I claim asylum in France.

  Beth Wow.

  Paula Finally, something to celebrate.

  Beth When did you stop trying?

  Helene Months. I hoped for smuggle, but since Paris price is too high. And I won’t pay the other way.

  Beth What do you mean?

  Paula What do you think?

  Beth So you’re leaving the Jungle.

  Helene No. In France you do not get house for a long time.

  Beth You’ve claimed asylum but you still have to live here?

  Paula Fucking ridiculous. But at least it means you won’t be trying any more. No more trains or lorries. No more smugglers.

  Helene I suppose.

  Beth How do the smugglers work, Helene?

  Helene You pay them and they take you to UK.

  Beth Yeah, but how?

  Helene You find the right one for you.

  Beth There are different ones?

  Helene Different smugglers for each nationality. Afghans for Afghans, Africans for Africans. Albanians take anyone but they are no good. Kurdish smugglers are best. Like Rolls-Royce. Five-star journey to UK.

  Beth Why?

  Helene They control the best areas. They have arrangements with best drivers who drive best lorries.

  Beth Do you pay by cash?

  Helene Of course.

  Beth You carry all that money?

  Helene Yes … You volunteers are so funny. You think we sew into the seams of our clothes? I have bank account!

  Beth How do you find them?

  Paula Why are you so interested?

  Beth We have no idea what’s actually happening here. This whole fucking crisis.

  Paula Oh come on, Beth! It’s only a crisis because we’re calling it that. A million people, Europe shits her knickers. Population of seven hundred million, that’s nought point fuck-knows per cent. Go to Jordan, quarter of people are refugees. Lebanon, it’s a third. Crisis? European governments need to stop breaking the law. Then we need to stop the obsession with helping.

  Helene You think we don’t need help?

  Paula Look at this place! Give people a chance, a hammer, some nails. Build a city in a day. You’re better than we are. Smarter, braver. We’re the ones who need fucking help.

  Helene So why are you here?

  Paula For the kids.

  Helene And the adults?

  Paula Come on, Helene, you know what I think about this.

  Helene Paula thinks I made a choice.

  Paula No, that’s not what I think.

  Helene Paula thinks I’m an economic migrant.

  Little Amal groans.

  Sure, my life was not about to end in Eritrea, but why should I spend it all in military service? My sister is the smartest woman, but she will never be free. She must build roads. I did not want this to happen for me –

  Paula I know that!

  Helene – so am I not still refugee?

  Paula Not the choice to flee. The choice to come this far.

  Helene You’re wrong. Yes, I could have stayed in Italy. But my cousins are in UK. And I speak English. Everyone in Eritrea speaks English because UK used to run Eritrea! And do you know how refugees are treated in Italy? Like animals. But yes, Paula, I could have stayed in Italy.

  Paula Helene, anyone who traipses across a desert, an ocean on a fucking lilo, will always have my support. You know that. But the kids are different.

  Helene I didn’t choose.

  Paula They can’t choose.

  Helene I didn’t choose!

  Paula (pointing to Amal) She doesn’t have the capacity to choose any of this.

  Helene I didn’t choose.

  Paula If we can’t even win the argument about unaccompanied kids like her, we don’t stand a chance with you. That’s why I’m here. To pin Mother fucki
ng Teresa against a wall until she meets her obligations.

  Beth You think the laws can solve this.

  Paula I’ll make sure they do.

  Beth What if they can’t?

  Pause.

  There’s a journalist, James Bartholomew. What a name. He coined this phrase in a Spectator article about refugees. Virtue signalling. When people share opinions, or petitions, or crowdfunders online, he says all you’re really doing is signalling your virtue. Proving how great you are. Not actually doing anything. I kid you not, within a week it had been picked up by every newspaper in the world. Everyone uses it now. The New York Times. The Guardian. It’ll be in the dictionary this time next year, I guarantee it. First, I thought, what a wanker. Cynical world. What sorry state have we got into if we can’t honestly express our horror at what is happening? That you can’t cry at the picture of a boy, dead on a beach, without some fucker telling you you’re lying. But now I hear you, Paula, tell me there’s a law that might have saved him, but that the law isn’t being used even though it’s been agreed by everyone. Not just one law. Loads of laws. Still he had to get on a boat that sank and killed him. Along with a lot of other people. I went on a school trip to Parliament. I stood at the dispatch box. We sat in the public gallery and watched a debate. I remember being so fucking awestruck by this incredible place with all the laws we’ve ever made. And now I know. It’s all one big virtue signal. ‘Look at us. Look at how much we care. These people have human rights! They do exist!’ Until they’re standing at our door, screaming for help. The French government. The British government. The United Nations. The European fucking Union. Where the fuck are you?

  Pause.

  If the system can’t save Okot, fuck the system. Do it yourself.

  She leaves.

  Paula Beth! Fuck’s sake. (To Helene, who is also leaving.) Where are you going?

  Helene Carol service!

  Singing starts offstage.

  Paula Oh fuck, it’s fucking Christmas.

  Sam takes Henri on a tour of the Jungle.

  The Eritrean Women’s Choir sings ‘Oh Come, All Ye Faithful’ loudly, offstage.

  This is the Kurdish area. I’ve built about four hundred houses here. Afghanistan that way, Pakistan. Nearly a thousand houses. The Afghan High Street is the civic centre of the camp, where most of the restaurants and cafés are. And over there the rebuild of Sudan, we’re making big progress in the design.