3.
THE WORK OF GDWG
Detainee Quotes
‘You put me in touch with someone from a different culture so that when I leave BH and walk
down the street I see someone who looks like my visitor and right away I see that stranger as a
friend. When my visitor sees someone like me on the street, they see him like a friend.’
‘The visit was very helpful. It was my first visit for a long time without a visit and it made me
think in a different way. It made me start thinking afresh. In detention you think the same
thoughts all the time and having a visit helps you to think of different things’.
‘Having a visit is like talking to family..having a visitor shows you people care’
‘It is remarkable that people leave their own everyday problems and come to help you. They
care for the feelings of others’
‘Sometimes you don’t want to ask your family to come and see you because they have their
own frustrations and difficulties or because if they see you, you feel pain when they leave’
‘We feel the world is against us but in a visit we feel a little bit the world is on our side’
‘When I was there she visited every 10 days for 10 months. I met her family. She was very nice
and helped to take my stress away. She wrote my story down for me and up to today she is still
my friend.’
‘My visitor shared my pain for two years. I can never forget. He bought a card to send my
children. He bought me the Barack Obama book to give me interest. I’m the luckiest person. He
was like a father to me. We talked about much more than detention. He made photocopies for
me when the photocopier in TH was out of order. I looked forward to his visit every Tuesday.
He’s part of me. My better half.’
‘Detention is no right place to be for human beings – you don’t have rights – the government
puts words in your mouth like what you want to eat. It’s a face blind place. You are in
darkness. You meet people who have a soft mind and full of anger.’
‘Detention is no good. So many bad memories. No good sleep. Worrying. Thinking. It’s so
terrible you can’t describe. You never know if you come out or be deport. You don’t know what
will happen in your situation or your life. A killer for me. It is not a good place – you would not
want to think of your friend or anyone you know in there.’