Two barriers separated visitors and detainees in the visiting area of the immigration detention centre in Bangkok. The 1m gap made it impossible at times to communicate, especially with a hundred people yelling at each other from behind iron bars.

New Naratif speaks to Saya Tamin, a Syrian refugee who’d been arrested in his Bangkok apartment with his wife and two children in October last year. While a Thai Muslim foundation were able to bail his wife and children out after two months in detention, Saya is still languishing behind bars.

“It’s not so good [here]. I cannot sleep. I have been staying here for so long,” he says.

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Hathairat Phaholtap, Wist, was a senior journalist from Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS). She has been working as a journalist for 16 years, covering politics and human rights issues.