to self-deport by contacting their families in their home countries to pay for return tickets. Human Rights Watch observed particularly large numbers of south Asians, many of whom appeared to be Bangladeshis, who are held for long periods of time in particularly bad conditions until they can pay for their return tickets. A newly arrived undocumented man in Athens who identified himself as a Palestinian and who had been arrested and detained in Balıkesir, Izmir, and Edirne while in Turkey explained the Turkish system of detention and removal: If you don’t get a plane ticket, you stay in jail. In Turkey you pay for your own deportation. They tell you to contact your family to send a ticket. If the family does not give you a ticket, you stay. You are stuck. I met an Afghan man named Mahmoud in the jail in Balıkesir.142 He was a good man. But he didn’t have money to go back to Afghanistan. I only stayed 15 days in this dirty place, but Mahmoud was there for more than a year. They separated him from his wife who was held in a different room.143 The seriously ill Bangladeshi man in Edirne who is quoted above about the abuse and lack of medical care in the Tunca detention center, spoke about the purpose of his indefinite detention: My friend went back to Bangladesh. But I am not able to go back. I have no money. He was able. His older brother arranged the ticket for him. But I am alone. My family is very poor. I lost my land to come here… I paid the smugglers $3,500 to come here and owe them $6,000 more and $500 in interest every month. My father is now like a beggar. I don’t know if Turkey will pay for a ticket to deport me. I don’t know how long they will hold me here.144 passport or because of any other reason have to reside in the places indicated by the Ministry of Interior.” It places no time limit on detention in these detention facilities, which the Ministry of Interior calls “foreigners guesthouses.” 142 He described the 15 days he spent in the Balıkesir jail with 52 people. “There was not room enough for everyone to sleep at once. We had to take turns with two people standing and one sleeping. There was no way to bathe. There was a very bad smell. There were no windows, no air.” Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-21), Athens, May 28, 2008. 143 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-21), Athens, May 28, 2008. 144 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-110), Edirne, June 13, 2008. 63 Human Rights Watch November 2008