"In Calcutta, India, Catholic priests promote the adoption of Indian children by those back in Belgium
as a form of charity. When the Belgian government realizes that the
number of Indian children raised in Belgium has reached 40,000 in just
five years, an emergency policy attempts to halt the migration.
Desperate for the chance to send their children to what they call a
"land of plenty", a mob of desperate Indians swarms the consulate. As a Belgian aid worker works through the crowd, an Indian gong farmer
known only as "the turd eater", carrying aloft his monstrously deformed
child, begs him to take them back to Europe, to which the worker
agrees.
The worker and farmer bring the crowd to the docks, where there
are hundreds of ships once owned by European powers, now suited only for
river traffic. Nevertheless, the crowd boards, and a hundred ships soon
leave for Europe; conditions on board are cramped, unsanitary and
miserable, with many passengers including children publicly fornicating.
As the ships pass "the straits of Ceylon", helicopters swarm overhead, capturing images of the migrants on board to be published in Europe. Meanwhile, on the Russian Far East, the Soviet troops see masses of Chinese ready to enter Siberia but are reluctant to fight them.
As the fleet crosses the Indian Ocean, the political situation in
France becomes more charged. At a press conference about the crisis, a
French official who offers a speech in praise of the migrants is
confronted by a journalist who claims he is merely trying to "feed the
invaders" and demands to know if France will "have the courage to stand
up to" the migrants when they reach France. The official decries this
question as morally offensive and threatens to throw the journalist out
when he continues to yell. Other journalists seek to inflame tensions
between the French and Africans and Arabs already living in the country.
Over time, these journalists begin to write that the migrant fleet is
on a mission to "enrich, cleanse and redeem the Capitalist West". At the
same time as the fleet is praised by those in Paris, the people of Southern France, terrified of the migrants' arrival, flee to the north.
As the fleet approaches the Suez Canal, Egyptian military forces fire a warning shot, causing the fleet to steer south, around the Cape of Good Hope. To the surprise of observers, the apartheid regime of South Africa
floats out barges of food and supplies, which the migrants throw
overboard. The international press is thrilled, believing the rejection
of these supplies to be a political statement against the apartheid
South African regime. Western leaders, confident the migrants will
accept supplies from their "more virtuous" nations, organize a supply
mission, funded by governments, charities, rock stars and major
churches, to meet the migrants off São Tomé. However, the fleet does not stop for these barges either, and when a worker from the Pope's
barge attempts to board one of the ships, he is strangled and thrown
overboard. The press attempts to contain coverage of the murder.
When the migrants pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, the French president
orders troops to the south and addresses the nation with his plan to
repel them. However, in the middle of the address, he breaks down,
demanding the troops simply follow their consciences instead. Most of
the troops immediately desert their posts and join the civilians as they
flee north, and the south is quickly overrun by the migrants. Some of
the last troops to stand their ground take refuge in a small village,
along with Calguès, an old man who has chosen to remain at his home, and
Hamadura, a Westernized
Indian who is terrified of his "filthy, brutish" countrymen and prides
himself on having more in common with whites than Indians. The troops in
this village, a total of nineteen Frenchmen and one Indian, surrounded
by what they deem "occupied territory", remain the last defense of
Western values and "Free France" against the immigrants."
Excerpt of "The Camp of the Saints"
