Somali ‘rehab’: re-education camps where children are locked up, beaten and abused

Solitary confinement, often including being shackled and beaten, is a common feature of dhaqan celis centres. Punishments can sometimes be for just making a mistake in reciting from the Qur’an. Photograph: Cory Seamer/Alamy

It was not until Fadumo* was sitting in an unfamiliar room on Mogadishu’s outskirts, and the smile vanished from her mother’s face, that the 16-year-old realised she was not going on holiday to Dubai.

In retrospect, there had been clues before they left England, when her mother suddenly announced, in 2022, that the two of them were going on holiday in a few days’ time. But it had been a difficult school year and Fadumo welcomed the idea of a break as a chance to repair their crumbling relationship.