34 »If we tell you all our problems, there won’t be enough space in your notebook.« Farsana, from Afghanistan104 ■ »Around 11 to12 o’clock in the morning, we arrived on the Greek side with our dinghy boats. We walked on the street and stopped to take a rest. We were very exhausted. Suddenly, an army tank passed by. It stopped and two soldiers starred at us. They called the police, which came and arrested us. It was around 9 o’clock [in the evening] when we arrived at Soufli prison. The officers were very angry, they were not friendly at all, they were pushing us around and they were searching our belongings that were left outside in the yard. They took everything away, even our belts. It was awful. Then they brought us into the cells. It was full of men, women and children – one on top of the other. There was not even enough space to pass through them. Most of the men were dressed only in their underwear since it was very hot. When we first arrived, we thought that men would be separated from women. When entering the first cell, we had the impression that it was the women’s cell, but after a while we understood that there were also men. In the second room there were only men. The floor was covered with thin and dirty mattresses, each only 2cm apart from the other. We stood there, expecting that somebody would react and clear some space for us, but nobody moved for hours. After many hours, at night, somebody told us to sit in the ›hallway‹ – the only spot that was unoccupied and that normally served as a passage. They gave us some dirty blankets and we sat there. Later, they put me with my baby close to the rubbish while two other Afghans were sleeping next to the toilets. The cells were so crowded that four people could only fit in if two were standing and the other two were lying. Those that were detained for a long period were washing their clothes in the toilet and were hanging them on the door to dry. There were some people from India sleeping in the sewage. I couldn’t sleep the whole night, I was really afraid. I was not used to be in the same place with a lot of men. It was very hot; there were only two small windows from where the mosquitoes were constantly entering. Our bodies are all red. Look! Maybe in these few days more than hundreds of bites! Even policemen had a problem with the insects but they never reacted. Together with the disgusting food they would give us some paper that we used to make air and to get rid of the mosquitoes. 6. Detention and detention centres At 9 o’clock in the morning, breakfast was served: One small juice and some bread. For drinking water we had to go to the toilet. The water was brown and smelled bad. We only had breakfast and lunch, no dinner. For lunch we always had something hot but it did not taste. The four days we spent there we had twice pasta and once meat. We asked if the meat was prepared according to Muslim religion. One guy said yes and another no. We were not convinced so we did not eat it. If somebody wanted to go to the toilet one had to wait for a long time, since there was only two and we were many to use them. The door could not be closed so we were afraid and always asked one of our men to accompany and guard us. People were smoking – cigarettes were passed from hand to hand – it was unbearable, and at the same time we were not allowed to go out. The windows were very small. People were putting their shoes on the window sills outside. It was hot. When we were protesting, demanding the police to let us out, they were shouting at us. One day I was crying and shouting, asking them to let me go out and get fresh air with my baby. They did not let me go. ›We did not ask you to come to Greece, so don’t complain,‹ they said. I told them, that I am not even complaining about the dirt and the smell, but I cannot stay in this small room together with men. We thought that the Greek authorities would bring us into a camp, but we didn’t know, that it would be so dirty, crowded and bad! Eventually, they only let me out for some minutes because some Georgian women hurt themselves in protest against their long detention, and the police were afraid my baby could accidentally be injured. There were no lawyers. We also did not see any doctor. They told us that there was one who visited the prison every Thursday, but we never met him. There was an Afghan man who’s been detained for about three months in Soufli and the police would use him as an interpreter. He spoke many languages. They told him that he is going to stay there for six months. The Georgians were also held there for a long period of time. To some of them they told that in two days they are going to move to Athens to another prison and that they might deport them. One day, they took us into another office to take our fingerprints. It was nice and comfortable there. So nice, that