The People Smuggler is rather a harrowing read. Firstly because of the story of Ali Al Jenabi's life and his struggle for freedom and his search to find a safe haven for his family. The atrocities inflicted on him and many of his fellow Iraqi's by the Sadaam Hussein regime are just unbelievable. How can anyone be so cruel to their fellow man? Seeking asylum then creates a whole other set of difficulties for Ali, but also raises the questions of the rights of other communities to protect its own citizens. Government procedure is called into question and is found to be massively flawed. You may or may not end up agreeing with the outcome of Ali's story, but it is thought provoking.
The second reason I found the book a little harrowing, is, at times there was just too much detail about the myriad of people Ali interacted with. I became confused, by all the names of associates that kept popping up. There was always someone who knew someone, who knew someone else who would suddenly be in a café, or on the street worlds away from where they would normally be. Maybe that's the way it is in Iraq.
Having said that, the book was interesting, thought provoking. I sympathise with Ali, am glad I read his story, but am conflicted about him as well.
I'm happy I have finished the book. ( )

This book certainly brought home to me the awful plight of Asylum Seekers. Their situation at home is so desperate that they are prepared to endure unspeakable hardships to give their children a better life.

However, I was not convinced that Ali Al Jenabi was such a great hero, he had my sympathy in the early part of the story, but I became a bit sceptical when he remained in Indonesia and became a "people smuggler". I don't think he did this for altruistic reasons at all but merely because he saw a chance to make money. He had the opportunity to come to Australia and if he had done so he possibly could have brought the rest of his family out as many others have done. instead he took advantage of the plight of his fellow asylum seekers. I think comparing him to Oscar Schindler is way off the mark, and that this has been done to help his case in the courts..

The thing that shocked me the most about the people of Ali's family and friends was the horrible treatment of their womenfolk, especially Instifar, the girl that Ali wanted to marry. To think that her own brothers would treat her in this cruel and unjust manner is appalling. The Australian government cannot interfere in cultural matters and does not see the plight of women like her to be grounds for seeking asylum, and nor do her fellow Iraqis. This to me was the greatest tragedy of the whole story.

I didn't feel terribly sorry for Ali at all. He achieved what he set out to do but unfortunately for him,
he got caught !!!t ( )

this was very interesting about how "Ali Al Jenabi" flees Saddam Hussein's torture chambers in Iraq , and he has to leave behind all his family and eventually gets to Indonesia and goes about setting up a people smuggling network - not to make money as per se, but to raise funds to bring his family over to Australia , but to me the bottom line was , no matter what , the only way to stop these people coming to Australia is to stop the war in these countries which will never happen ..... and these people settle here as though it is their right to do so , then they don't assimilate, they just continue to live in the same way with the same conditions/cultures that they did in their own country and don't care about the consequences .. It was well written and I felt sorry for them , but we have no chance of stopping these people from coming her . ( )

While I'm already converted to the asylum seeker cause, this book didn't really move me. In particular, I found the Oskar Schindler comparison a bit tenous. I felt the main character, Ali to be more of a thug than a hero. In my view, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif is a much better book about the asylum seeker experience, with a much more likable main charater. ( )

The People Smuggler tells the story of Ali Al Jenabi – notorious in Australia as a ‘people smuggler’, but from another perspective, lauded as a contemporary Oskar Schindler. This book takes the second perspective, telling Ali’s story in his own words. It’s possible there are more shades of grey in this story than are acknowledged in the book, but it’s nevertheless a very powerful account that raises a number of important issues.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up in Saddam’s Iraq, like Ali did, in a country where inadvertently repeating something you’d heard at home at the age of 10 could cause your father to be imprisoned and tortured, and leave you in the role of father to your siblings. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be imprisoned and tortured yourself, and to know – and sometimes even witness – the same thing was happening to friends and family. I can’t imagine worrying every time there was a knock on the door or movement outside your house that it was the secret police come to take you and your family away.

I doubt that I would have had the strength and will power that Ali had, after living through all of that, to join the resistance – knowing the likely outcomes – and then, when his role became known, escape from Iraq, and try to bring as many of his family as he possibly could out to safety.

I very much doubt that I would have maintained the compassion and empathy for other refugees that Ali did, seeing them not as pawns that he could exploit to benefit himself and his family, but people not unlike himself in a desperate situation who he wanted to help as much as possible.

There were several very telling anecdotes and comments in this book:

1. The fact that Ali and his family had applied for refugee status to the Australian embassy in Iran and been refused, despite the obvious risks to their safety had they stayed in Iraq. The government accused Ali and people smuggling of facilitating ‘queue jumping’, but was apparently unable to prove this in court to the satisfaction of the judge who conducted Ali’s trial, and it has always seemed to me like a ridiculous metaphor to use when someone is fleeing for their life.

2. The very sad plight of Intisar, who the Australian government were unable or unwilling to help.

3. Ali’s very sobering comment that the hopelessness and despair he experienced in immigration detention were not unlike the way he felt when imprisoned in Abu Graib.

4. The way in which borders and controls on movement can be perceived – quite rightly – as arbitrary and unjust by those who accident of birth alone has denied the right to move around as freely as those of us lucky enough to be born somewhere like Australia.

5. A very poignant moment when Ali is treated in hospital by a doctor who he helped smuggle out of Iraq, who has now made a new life for himself in Australia.

While the story is uplifting because of the way in which Ali maintains his humanity in a situation where it would be all too easy to look out for his own interests, and achieves a lot for other people, it’s also incredibly depressing because of the way it highlights injustice, oppression, and what I would call monumental governmental failures of empathy and compassion. ( )