The Forgotten: Life inside notorious Philippine detention centre where inmates 'disappear' without being charged
They come from all corners of the globe, but many in Manila's Bicutan detention centre are trapped - neither charged with a crime nor represented. Simon Parry enters a fetid world of despair
In the simmering heat of a Manila July, a wealthy Chinese fugitive was, until late last week, confined to a grim isolation cell in one of Asia's most notorious detention centres, giving him plenty of time to contemplate a potentially deadly dilemma: should he stay or should he go home?
Wang Bo's downfall was sudden and brutal. Six months ago, the crop-haired 31-year-old was jetting between China and the Philippines, allegedly running a multimillion-dollar transnational illegal gambling business that the Chinese authorities accuse Wang of having used China-issued bank cards to fund.
On February 5, he was intercepted by immigration officials as he arrived in Manila because the Chinese passport he was holding had been cancelled. He was taken to the Bureau of Immigration's detention centre in Bicutan, Taguig City, in the south of Manila, to be processed for deportation.
Since then, he has spent most of his time locked up in a grey, airless isolation cell in a facility that once served as an extermination centre for opponents of the Ferdinand Marcos regime.
Other inmates are packed into tiny rooms; there is no privacy, nowhere to exercise and nowhere to escape the oppressive humidity and the stench of fetid close-quarter living.
Never formally charged with a crime, some of the 150 or so foreigners held here disappear into an opaque legal whirlpool and remain locked up for years or even decades. These inmates are known as The Forgotten.