I Am Justice

About this book

Eighty miles off the Libyan coast water is leaking rapidly into the bottom of a dilapidated wooden boat. Twenty-seven men, crammed in side-by-side, desperately attempt to bail it out, but the boat is sinking. In the distance one of their number spots a ship and, forcing the last moments of life from the engine, they move towards it. But the crew refuses to allow them on board. Instead the men scramble onto the floats of a huge industrial tuna net, and watch as their boat rolls over and disappears into the heaving Mediterranean. Justice Amin draws breath and blesses himself. All twenty-six of his fellow young Africans are cold and soaked but at least for the moment they are safe. Over the next three days though, Justice's optimism fades as he finds himself hungry, cold and exhausted drifting in a hazy place between Africa and Europe, between darkness and light, innocence and experience, as he contemplates his plight. Around him his fellows begin to pray. His friend Atiku is now standing, his hands outstretched to the dark sky, others are kneeling, many are simply weeping. Like tens of thousands of others Justice set off from his rural village with a shared simplicity of thought and desire, an idealised vision of an new life in England - the 'home' country - desperate just to earn his way and help his orphaned brother and sister left behind. During his long journey to the African coast, he's captured, jailed and tortured, before escaping and heading northwards again. Once in Tripoli he's duped into handing over his life savings for a trip in a wreck of a boat across miles of open sea to almost certain death. But there is also compassion here and he meets old and wise souls along the way. The tuna net is not the end of Justice's story. After a total of nine days at sea, he is rescued and taken to a small island near Malta. From there he's flown to mainland Italy, where he's briefly interred before setting off again, onwards, he hopes, to his promised land.

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