As we see the number of overseas arrests continue to rise, many more people will be at risk as lots of prisons around the world provide inadequate food, water and healthcare. Musa was imprisoned in Thailand and experienced awful conditions. Here is his story.

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I spent five years in prison in Thailand. From the moment I arrived it was all about humiliation, as I learned from the mandatory strip search. They take away your dignity. On a usual day, you were let out of your cell between 5:30am and 6am to shower. There were ten showerheads in a row for twenty people. The water came in two bursts: one to soak you and another to rinse you off.

By 7am or 8am you were having breakfast. At 8:30am, there would be another count, and then certain prisoners would be allowed to exercise in the small concrete gym. At 11am there was lunch and then, two or three hours later, your last meal was served. At 3pm there was a final prisoner count, and we would be locked in our cells for the rest of the day.

Sleeping was particularly difficult. There were around 200 people in the same small room. You were given two blankets, one to use as a mattress and the other one to cover yourself. For me, this was one of the hardest things about the whole sentence. The lights were on all the time and the Thai prisoners would watch a loud TV until 9pm.

It was so overcrowded with everyone crammed in that cell that some nights sleeping was nearly impossible.

The toilet situation was unbearable. There were uncovered squat toilets in the cell with no privacy. Using them was demoralising and another way the system made you feel less than human. If you didn’t use it between 8am and 9am in the morning, you couldn’t flush because there was no water. So you had to be quick and people would stare at you, waiting for their turn because of the limited time. When I first arrived, I couldn’t make myself go to the toilet properly for about a month, which, as you can imagine, was horrible.

The meals we got throughout the day were terrible: rice and cabbage in the morning and rice in water in the afternoon. In the evening we were supposed to have rice with chicken, but by the time the food reached the foreigners, the Thai prisoners had already taken all the meat.

Without Prisoners Abroad sending money, I wouldn’t have survived. Even still, the lack of proper nutrition caused health issues.

My teeth started falling out, I lost a lot of weight, and I developed scabies – it was almost impossible for anyone to avoid catching scabies in that crowded environment. For me this wasn’t too bad and only caused itchiness; for others this developed into open sores and painful wounds.

Medical care was virtually nonexistent. If you wanted to see a doctor, the only option was to ask the embassy to intervene, and they only visited once every two months. Even then, there was little the doctors could do. The living conditions made it easy to contract diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.

Throughout all of this, Prisoners Abroad were sending me letters, books and magazines. This was the only meaningful contact a lot of us had with the outside. We would have really suffered without books, so I am very grateful to Prisoners Abroad for that. They also sent us birthday and Christmas cards – something we could look forward to.

When my sentence came to an end, Prisoners Abroad and the British embassy managed to arrange a deportation flight after 10 days – for some this can take a year. Coming home was humiliating. I was the first person checking in, but they wouldn’t let me on the plane until everyone was on. I had to walk on with handcuffs on which they then took off onboard the plane. Everyone was looking at me. It was overwhelming when I did arrive in London, but Prisoners Abroad provided me with a basic smartphone, a travel card, a prepaid SIM, and a food voucher.

I had been out of the country for 20 years, so returning was a big shock.

My resettlement officer was incredible. She helped me with everything: setting up Universal Credit, opening a bank account, getting a doctor (which I was in desperate need of) and arranging a full health check. Prisoners Abroad gave me money weekly and paid my rent until my benefits came through. After five months, Prisoners Abroad helped me move to my own little flat. They also gave me CV advice and, six months after returning, I got a job. I realise I’m really lucky – I couldn’t have done it without Prisoners Abroad.

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Being offered a lifeline can change everything. 

Prisoners Abroad translates human rights law into practical life-saving actions by providing prisoners access to vitamins and essential food, emergency medical care, freepost envelopes to keep in touch with home and books and magazines to help sustain mental health.

Can you help to support our life-saving work by donating today?

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