Wani's going to Sweden

I visited Wani in prison the other day. Unfortunately, I got there too early and ended up waiting two and a half hours. The guards didn't notice that I was white or didn't seem to care. Usually if you're white, they assume you're Lebanese and then you don't have to wait in the line with everyone else. In the past, I got to abused my white/American privelege and automatically moved up to the front of the line.

I was at least told not to bring anything. Usually I bring a 10-liter jug of water and a bag of food and toiletries--tea, Nescafe, toothpaste, biscuits, chocolate. Once he asked for eggs.

Other people brought all that stuff and had to take it back with them. Apparently, two weeks before, someone stuck razor blades in the food. So now the guards said nothing was allowed.

As we were waiting in line, people (mostly foreigners--Egyptians, Sri Lankans, Sudanese) were discussing the best way to pass money through. When we go down to that little room to visit people, we're separated from the prisoners by a metal sheet perforated by a bunch of holes. If you roll up the money tight, you can fit it through the hole, or you can fold it in half and slide it in the space between the sheet and the ceiling. That's how I slipped the phone card through.

Wani was frustrated. He had basically told the General Security that he wanted to go back to Sudan. Even though he has been resettled through the UNHCR to go to Sweden. He thinks it's all lies. And that he'll continue waiting there. He's been in 3 different prisons over the past year.

We found out this weekend that his paperwork had been fully processed, and that Sweden has prepared a place for him. Then why is he still in jail? Because the papers have been sitting on some functionary's desk. It's a process that's been coordinated through the Lebanese General Security, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). But that paper apparently was on the desk of someone in the Lebanese government.

Now he has his travel date--he'll be going to Sweden in three weeks.