Good morning. On Sunday, the Observer published a report I had been working on for the past eight months about “cultural rehabilitation centres” in Somalia and Kenya, where British citizens of Somali heritage are being held against their will. It’s a complicated story of cultural identity, assimilation, and unlawful detention, but at the heart of it are the voices of those people who are left in dire situations abroad, with little to no help from the UK government.
Fadumo, Bilan and Hodan (all names have been changed) trusted me with their stories – all of them begin in England and all end up in a cultural rehabilitation centre in Mogadishu, Somalia. Fadumo was just 16 when she was sent to one such centre, after being told that she was going on holiday to Dubai.
