Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

Twelve-year-old Ebo is in a Seahawk Inflatable Rubber dinghy that should only how six people but has fourteen passengers. He is traveling with his brother Kwame and two friends, Nuru and Razak, hoping to reach the shores of Italy and a better life. In the boat they are arguing- they've been at sea for three hours and it is cold and dark. Razak is struggling to navigate the boat. Ebo remembers how they came to be in this situation...

Nineteen months earlier, Ebo's brother Kwame left suddenly, without telling him, to try for Europe. After checking throughout the village and running to the bus depot, Ebo realizes Kwame has left. After putting his Uncle Patrick who has been "caring" for him to bed, Ebo sets out after Kwame, boarding the bus to Agadez, Niger. In Agadez, a woman remembers Kwame after she sees Ebo's photograph, but she has no other information. 

Every day Ebo tries to find work but is turned away. Ebo befriends an older man named Penn after he finds a package of anti-septic wipes. He used the wipes to trade for food. A lucky break happens when Ebo is asked to sing at a wedding and he finds Kwame.

It takes Ebo and Kwame twenty-one weeks to save for passage across the desert on a truck that is filled with many others. Their water bottles are taken from them and they are allowed one mouthful of water when the truck stops. The traffickers show no mercy, not even stopping when a man falls off the truck.

Ebo, Kwame, Nuru, Razak and the others are abandoned in the desert when Libyan men stop their truck, fill it with contraband cigarettes and take off. The group spend days walking, suffering from thirst and the burning sun. They find a jeep with dead men, but it has sealed water bottles and eventually they do cross the desert. Ebo and his brother work to pay for rides from town to town until they reach Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea. On the ride into Tripoli, Ebo and the others are smuggled past a check point. By this time Ebo is very ill and Kwame must get illegal medication to save him. While Ebo recovers, Kwame works so they can pay for passage to Europe.

Razak and Nuru visit every day with news about the boats. They argue about what to do and whether they can trust the men with the boats. After the storm drain they are living in is checked by soldiers, Ebo, Kwame and Razak make the fateful decision to book a boat to Europe. The trip to Italy will bring both heartbreak and happiness.

Discussion

Illegal is a graphic novel that effectively portrays the plight of the thousands of men, women and children fleeing war, persecution, and economic hardship in Africa and the Middle East. With few resources available to them, many must work hard and place their trust in people who traffick in human beings. The result is often death or the loss of those they love.

In Illegal, Ebo and Kwame's journey begins in their village in Niger, to Agadez. the fifth largest city in Niger, situated in the middle of the Sahara Desert. To get to the Mediterranean Sea, Ebo and Kwame have to travel through the Sahara, a dangerous journey due to the extreme heat and cold, but also made more so because they must rely on human traffickers to make the journey. Their destination is Tripoli, the capital of Libya and from there they will cross the Mediterranean Sea to land in Italy.

Colfer tells Ebo's story in two parts. The story opens with Ebo, Kwame, and their friends in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The situation is dire as it is evident the boat is overcrowded, the motor is failing, and they are lost. This causes Ebo to remember how he came to be in this situation. From this point on the story alternates between the events that occurred in Northern Africa as they journeyed from Agadez to Tripoli and the current terrifying situation in the boat on the Mediterranean.

Unlike many refugees, Ebo and Kwame and their friends are not fleeing persecution or war, but are economic migrants. Their parents are both dead and there is no one to look after them except an elderly uncle who spends the money they earn on drink. Although Ebo attended school, there are very few options for a young person in his situation. 

Illegal perhaps best captures the desperation Ebo and Kwame experience, willing to risk traversing the Sahara Desert with traffickers who cram refugees onto trucks and who don't care about the safety of their passengers and even extort them for water. They are again at the mercy of traffickers who take their money but provide boats that are overcrowded and not seaworthy. 

The novel also captures the trauma that refugees like Ebo experience, after seeing people die in the desert and drown in the sea. Ebo also experiences the trauma of almost dying himself during the crossing and of witnessing his own beloved brother drown. 

Illegal does end on a hopeful note with Ebo reuniting with his long-lost sister. The novel's back matter offers a map of Ebo's Journey, a Creator's Note written by the authors and illustrator, and another refugee's experience, titled Journey: Helen's Story. 

Illegal offers young readers the opportunity to experience the humanity of refugees, their hopes and struggles. Written in 2017, Illegal was inspired by the 2015 crisis which saw mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East into Western Europe. As the creators of the graphic novel note, all these migrants and refugees are human beings.

Book Details:

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky     2018
122 pp.