Robin de Crespigny
Speaker: Robin de Crespigny, Author - “The People Smuggler
Robin spoke about her recently published book, “The People Smuggler”, the story of a young Shiite Iraqi man’s struggle to escape Saddam Hussain persecution and escape from Iraq with his family, to eventually reach Australia.
Robin said that, being a journalist and film maker, the epic story of Ali Al Jenabi originally came to her as a film script. Robin found, however, that Ali’s story of his long, difficult struggle couldn’t be covered adequately in a film, so she started her book written in the first person, so as to put the reader in Ali’s shoes.
Ali’s story started in the 1970’s when Saddam Hussain came to power and started the fragmentation of Iraqi society, using the secret police to break down trust within families. Ali was the oldest child in his family and as his father was away in the army, he had the responsibility of looking after his family. The family was Shiite. Saddam had the Shiites rounded up and murdered or imprisoned in Abu Ghraib prison where Ali was imprisoned and tortured.
Ali’s mother and five other children escaped to Iran. Their UN application to go to Australia as refugees was refused. Ali left Iraq and got to Indonesia via Malaysia. He made several attempts to get to Australia via boat smugglers but was ripped off by rogues. In desperation he started his own boat smuggling business to try and bring his family and other persecuted refugees to Australia. Ali was eventually brought to Australia and ended up in detention, fighting a very public battle for justice.
Robin ended her talk by emphasising the inhumanity of Australia’s treatment of refugees.