Kicked Out, page 18
As I write this note, the UK government is doing everything in its power to demonize refugees and is making it harder than ever for them to seek safety here. The hateful narrative stretches across Europe and the US too, with many countries taking in fewer refugees than ever before. The two questions often asked about lone young men seeking asylum have always been: Why didn’t they stay in their country with their families? And why have they come alone?
Aadam’s reasons for fleeing war in this story are based on real events. The majority of lone young men, like Aadam in Kicked Out, fled Syria because they didn’t want to fight in the war. They didn’t want to attack their neighbors and countryfolk, and so they left in the hope they’d escape the war and one day return to their homes and families without having harmed anyone.
Many parents send their precious young boys out of their country in the hope they’ll have a better, safer future, just like Aadam’s mum does. But, when asylum seekers arrive here, typically they are not welcomed and instead they are accused of lying. Asylum claims are often rejected if accounts in an interview or on paper have tiny variances in recollection. Many young boys who have lost documentation and proof of identity on their long journeys are not believed when stating their age and are told they look like adults based on visual checks, some because, like Aadam, they have wrinkled, weathered hands or faces due to the harsh, cold outdoors they’ve had to survive in for months. Years pass, and these children grow up without care or proper education, navigating through an adult asylum system without the support and safeguards they should have. Lawyers can sometimes exploit vulnerable people, asking for fees and suggesting legal aid is unavailable. It is inhumane to allow any of this to happen because of a slow and inefficient asylum system.
My hope is that, having read this book, readers might feel inspired to speak up against unjust laws and find out how you can welcome and support asylum seekers who simply arrive at our shores with the hope of living with some dignity and in safety (there’s more about that on page 307, What Can We Do?). Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival that was founded in 1998 to encourage greater understanding of why people seek safety and to celebrate the contributions of refugees in the UK. It is held every year in June around World Refugee Day, which is celebrated globally. I hope this story will empower you and show you that you can make a difference. There are so many ways you can step up. And, schools, I hope you will also be inspired by Heath Academy and do more for Refugee Week or World Refugee Day, or as part of your curriculum, and perhaps reach out to refugees in your own community who will no doubt appreciate the effort.
Growing up isn’t easy. It can be hard to understand the world you’re in and your own place in it. It’s a time in your life that can really shape the choices you make. Unfortunately, there are lots of young people experiencing discrimination and microaggressions, who live with violent, controlling family members like Mark, get name-called, etc. A book can literally be life-changing when you can see yourself in it or if you realize you have something in common with those who seem or are depicted as being different from you.
The arrival of Ali’s father and half brother rocks Ali’s world, and he ends up questioning his self-worth. I wanted to show, through Ali, how resilient young people can be, and that how people treat you or whether they choose to be absent from your life is not a reflection of you. That is a reflection of their thinking and decision-making, and it has no bearing on who you are and who you will become. It takes Ali a while to realize this, and you’ll have seen he really struggles on his journey to this point. But he finds the strength to continue despite the challenges he faces, and he gets there. I hope for those of you who have struggled because of the way people have treated you or left you out of their lives, you will also go on to achieve whatever you want to, even if you don’t have the validation your heart desires. You have the power to make things happen, and no one can stop you from being your best self. Your worth does not depend on who is there for you, who loves you, and who gives you time.
I hope anyone reading Kicked Out will feel inspired by Ali’s story and see that you have to first believe in yourself and the rest will all fall into place.
With love and hope always,
A. M. Dassu
What Can We Do?
The refugee crisis around the world is not going anywhere, and with climate change destroying entire neighborhoods, it is only going to get worse. Now is the time to start a conversation about what we need to do to build a kinder and more supportive society for those who are forced to seek refuge elsewhere. If there’s one thing we should remember, it’s that it could happen to any one of us.
There were 89.3 million people who were forced to flee their homes by the end of 2021. Of these, 53.2 million people had to move within their own country, and 27.1 million moved to another country in search of safety. We are constantly told refugees are a threat and that they come here illegally, when, in reality, there are no safe and lawful routes into safe countries for them to use.
The UK and Europe are not affected by the refugee crisis in the same way other countries are, despite what we’re told by the media and some politicians. Countries like Turkey, Uganda, and Pakistan take in more refugees than the whole of Europe put together. Approximately 72% of refugees live in countries that are neighbors with their country of origin, and most of these are developing countries. Almost half of displaced people around the world are children, and they deserve the same access to food, water, housing, and education that we would want for ourselves, were we to find ourselves in that position. I wrote my novel Boy, Everywhere in response to the divisive and hateful portrayal of refugees in the news. It is a story that shows we are all one cruel twist of fate away from becoming refugees ourselves.
One thing we should all be reminded of and challenge when we hear it said is that you cannot be an “illegal” asylum seeker. Under international law, you have the right to apply for asylum (shelter and protection) in any of the 149 countries that have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, including the UK. While the United States didn’t sign it right away, they later signed the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. These agreements between 149 countries recognize the rights of refugees and that people fleeing their homes might have to use various ways to escape and get to safety.
There are many ways we can support refugees and unaccompanied minors. Here are some ideas:
Speak up. It is hard, but we need to correct people if they say something that isn’t accurate. Find out the facts so that if people don’t agree with you because of something they’ve read, or seen on the news or on social media, you can challenge them on it with confidence. You can also speak out in many other ways: write to your local paper, organize an assembly at school, post on social media so everyone knows you support refugees!
Challenge racism and hateful language. Look at the language you and the people in your life use. Are you describing people in a way that might be offensive? Could some of the words you use be untrue and not applicable to a whole group of people?
Email or call your member of Congress, both your Senator and Congressional Representative. Write to tell them why you think refugees and asylum seekers deserve our protection, and ask them to make suggestions to change the law to help refugees seek safety here more easily. If you don’t have your own email address, you could ask a trusted adult to email them on your behalf. Find out who represents you at
congress.gov/members/find-your-member.
Reach out and support. We are so much stronger when we support each other. You can reach out in so many ways: a smile; a kind word; by volunteering; by learning some words in other languages; by learning about different cultures and the countries refugees have come from. You could also fundraise or donate money to charities; or even just raise awareness by supporting local and regional organizations or groups that provide young refugees who are unaccompanied with a safe place to heal and the support to make their futures better. In the US there are several organizations that support young refugees. For example, the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program works with the Catholic organization USCCB and the Lutheran organization LIRS to provide support and foster placements for young refugees. You can find out more about what they do at acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/refugees/urm.
There are seven other refugee resettlement agencies in the US that work to support refugee families as well. If you’re old enough to have social media, you can share their articles/blogs/retweet their work. Your school can also become a “School of Sanctuary”—ask a teacher for help with finding out how.
Believe things will change. Discuss issues about refugees with like-minded people, but also with people who don’t agree with you so they might become aware why their opinions and behavior affect others. Most of all, never lose hope. If we believe things will get better for refugees, we’re more likely to want to help to make it happen.
Acknowledgments
This is the very first full-length novel that I have written after becoming a published author. The first two had several drafts underway before they were even bought, and so the process has been very squeezed and different. I didn’t think I’d manage to get it written from concept to print-ready in just six months, while launching my World Book Day novella and with so many other commitments. And it’s only thanks to the following people that I managed it.
I’d like to thank first and foremost, as always, my dear friend and confidante Catherine Coe for always reading my worst zero drafts, for being there for me, and being so very patient about all the other things I am supposed to send to you because I had to first write this. Thank you for supporting me always. I am ever thankful for you.
A huge thanks to my UK publisher, Ruth Huddleston at Old Barn Books, for buying this book before it was even written and for believing in it based on a one-page synopsis. Thanks also for making this into a series following a World Book Day title, something we both had never envisaged all those years ago when we first met. Thank you for making so many of my dreams come true and for helping to change hateful narratives through our books.
And to my UK editor, Emma Roberts, for working on Kicked Out with me from the chapter plan to finish. Thank you for laughing at my jokes, encouraging me in my sports-writing techniques, and for allowing me to have the space I needed to write it by juggling your very own busy schedule. I couldn’t have written this book in this time frame without you. Thank you so much for believing I could do it.
A heartfelt thanks to my US publisher, Stacy Whitman at Lee and Low, for buying the book on concept and for editing it with me before contracts were even drawn up. I know you’d never normally do that, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the way you tell me how it is and make our editing process work. Especially when you were in the middle of setting up your very own bookstore! You amaze me, and I hope I can visit you and buy lots of books from your store one day!
The desire of all three of you to work with me and your belief in my stories means so much—I am so grateful you want to share my stories with the world and do it with so much heart. THANK YOU!
To my dearest agent, Julia Churchill. You are quite literally the best thing to have happened to me this last year. Thank you for championing me, for thinking so highly of me, and for supporting me in ways that I didn’t think were possible. You honestly rock, and I am so excited to work with you on the next thing.
A huge thanks to Liz Scott, my publicist at Old Barn Books, and my US publicists/marketers, Jennifer Khawam, Jenny Choy, and Shaughnessy Miller at Lee and Low, for working with me on the campaign and always finding innovative ways to get my books into the world.
A beautiful thanks to my ever-amazing illustrator Daby Ihsan and designer Sheila Smallwood, for once again choosing to work with me, and so closely, and for creating the best covers despite your already busy workloads. I can’t believe we have done four covers in just three years!
A mahoosive thank-you to my dearest and most trusted feedbackers, who took time out of their busy schedules to once again read an early draft of one of my books: Sajeda Amir, I loved your live feedback; it made me smile so much! Caroline Fielding, thank you for reading an early draft; I always feel more at ease once I know you approve! Kathryn Evans, my dear heart, thank you for reading it when time was squeezed and for always being there. Alexandros Plasitis, thank you so much for your feedback—I loved listening to your reactions. Thank you also for connecting me with Baca and ex-colleagues who’d worked with unaccompanied minors. Thank you, Jimmy Zachariah at Baca and Grace Ellen-Burch, for talking me through legal aid and the experience of unaccompanied minors, and for your expert eyes on the manuscript. I’m so grateful for the important work you do, and I look forward to supporting it!
Dr. Philippa East, thank you for reading when you had your own deadline and for putting me at ease. I really appreciate you. Dr. Graham Fairweather, I can’t express how much your support means to me. David Mora now almost catches Aadam’s penalty because of you, and the newspaper feature is all thanks to you! Thank you to Emma Perry and Kevin Cobane for your wholehearted support and for giving me the confidence to go forward. Hannah Gold for your really helpful feedback and for encouraging me to keep going when I was doubting myself; you inspired me to show Callum’s nicer side and Aadam’s interests! I love our chats! And to my dearest, Louie Stowell, for fitting in a read online when you prefer to read on paper and when you had so much on your plate—thank you for always checking in and being there for me. Buffy’s cameo in the park scene is my homage to you.
A huge thank-you to my dearest friends, Patrice Lawrence, Mo O’Hara, Liz Kessler, Sita Brahmachari, Hamida Seedat, Saima Ahsan, and everyone in the Swaggers and Venters and SCBWI-BI for being there for me through my wobbles, checking in on me, and celebrating all my good news. You really make a huge difference to my life, and I hope you know how much you all mean to me.
A massive thanks also to all my readers, parents, teachers, booksellers at Waterstones, Wonderland, Rabbit Hole, Kenilworth Books, Moon Lane, Next Page Books, Mirror Write, Chicken and Frog, A New Chapter, Kibworth Books, Write Blend, Roundtable Books, the Children’s Bookshop, Pickled Pepper Books, and so many others I can’t fit in here! A huge thanks to award judges, The Week Junior, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Good Housekeeping, The Guardian, Books for Keeps, The Bookseller, Bookbrunch, and everyone who has supported me this last year. A special thanks to Kevin Cobane, Lucas Maxwell, Jenny Hawke, Rumena Akhtar, Joanna de Guia, Tamsin Rosewell, Ashley Booth, Jen O’ Brien, Helen Tamblyn-Saville, Rani Tiwani, Jacqui Sydney, Karen Wallee, John Lamb, Saira Ibrahim, Ms. Z Younis, Nazia 9teaNinePercent, Scott Evans, Tom Griffiths, Hazel Pinner, Miss Defries, Kim Howard, and so many other teachers and librarians. It’s been such an incredibly busy year, and I haven’t had the space to breathe let alone say what I feel, so I just want to thank all of you for reading my books, shouting about them on social media, and sharing them. I see you and appreciate you dearly.
And now my family: Imran, you are the kind of father I always wished my children would have. Thank you for supporting me and them always in everything we do. My kids—what can I say? You never cease to surprise me. Even now, on my twelfth book and probably fifteenth manuscript, you want to read my work. I honestly am so touched and honored by your support and love. Thank you for spending a part of your Easter holiday reading and giving me live feedback. It really was so very helpful and, yes, I owe you a new game/blog site/cupboards full of chocolate and sweets! Mustafa, thank you for telling me no one dabs anymore. Ahmed, you’re quite the editor—thank you for pushing me to clarify my sentences—and, Hana, thank you for writing up all your helpful feedback, your lovely notes, hugs, and supplying me with endless biscuits and sweets! The hair train and hairbrush scenes are down to you! I only started writing because of all your love and encouragement for my stories. I love you, my babies, so much.
Thank you to Ma and Dad Dassu and the Dassus Up North for all your support, for sending food and gifts to sustain us, for understanding when I couldn’t visit you because I had to work to deadlines, and appreciating how much energy this work takes. My nieces and nephews, I am so buoyed by the respect and support you give refugees in your community.
And finally, my mum. Thank you for being both my mum and dad. For giving me the confidence to believe I could do anything I put my heart to. You made me feel like the sky was my limit and anything was possible. Thank you for your patience and for giving me space to write when I need it. Thank you for sending food and chicken soup when I was ill. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
And of course, God, thank you for absolutely everything: thank you for blessing me with a supportive family; brilliant friends; a writing community; wonderful publishers, librarians, booksellers, and amazing teachers; multiple awards; a World Book Day book; a computer; time; energy; and dedication to do something I not only enjoy but also makes a difference.
I didn’t think I’d make it through this year because of the lack of sleep, not recovering wholly from Covid, or hit any of my several deadlines, but you helped me to somehow write and edit eight books, do two book tours across the country, multiple events, write this whole novel from concept to print in six months, while juggling a gazillion things. I look back and have no idea how. I owe you everything, always.
This is a tribute to all of you. ❤
About the Author
A. M. DASSU is the internationally acclaimed author of Boy, Everywhere and Fight Back, which have collectively been listed for more than fifty awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Little Rebels Award for Radical Fiction, the Week Junior Book Award, the American Library Association Notable Book List, and the Jane Addams Peace Book Award.
