IX. Detention in Turkey Edirne Human Rights Watch spent two full days visiting the Edirne Tunca detention facility. The access we were given to the facility was particularly remarkable given the absolutely dreadful conditions we found there. On the first day we visited, June 11, 2008, the detainee population was 703. The capacity of the facility is 200. By our second visit, 263 people had been released, including, as it turned out, nearly everyone who spoke Arabic and Farsi, the languages of our interpreters. Nevertheless, we were permitted to interview anyone we chose in a completely private setting in a courtyard outside a building holding most of the detainees.112 The Tunca facility at Edirne is comprised of two buildings, each divided into two rooms. The smaller of the two buildings holds in one room women and children and in the other men who appear to have prospects of relatively quick identification and cooperation from their home consulates to effect their removal from Turkey. The countries of origin of the men in the small building included Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Ecuador.113 The larger building which holds by far the larger number of detainees is divided into a smaller room for men who will be released to Istanbul because they are members of nationalities that cannot be deported, such as Somalis and Palestinians, and the larger room which holds the largest number of men—about 400 on our first visit—who are held indefinitely pending their relatives providing tickets for their return flights or until they can be deported. Most of the men in the big room appeared to be south Asians from countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, as well as various African nationalities.114 The authorities also put “Afghans,” “Somalis,” “Burmese,” and “Palestinians” in the big room when they doubted their declared nationalities. 112 One of the detainees selected by the authorities for us to interview was identified to Human Rights Watch by other detainees as a migrant who was working as a police informant. This man told Human Rights Watch, “The police at Tunca treat us really kindly. The food is nice. The toilet and bath are clean. We have hot water the whole day.” Although he testified about forced expulsion from Greece, Human Rights Watch dismissed his interview in its entirety. 113 Human Rights Watch conversation with men as a group in the small room, as well as a private interview with B-105. 114 Human Rights Watch observations were confirmed by several detainees who explained which nationalities were kept in which rooms. Most of the people in the big room spoke Hindi, Urdu, or Bangla. Their interviews included B-104, B-105, and B110. Stuck in a Revolving Door 52