3:30pm Thursday 4th February 2010
Exclusive By Julia Kennard
Loneliness and fear of the future haunted Mr Al Sarraj in the camp.
In a bid to survive he isolated himself, ordered a constant supply of fiction and history books and tried to forget his former life.
“It is difficult to say I did not think about my wife, she was in every moment, but actually I tried to make myself not think, I tried to forget everything.
“It was difficult to find friends there, a lot of people had a different cultural mentality and there were a lot of people who couldn’t read and couldn’t write.
“Some people you can feel they are guilty, I didn’t talk to them.
“Once I met an engineer, we used to talk and play chess.
“One day I found the chess board had been broken deliberately. Someone said it was prohibited.”
But despite an acceptance of his fate Mr Al Sarraj never stopped believing in his eventual release.
“I just always thought there has to be light at the end of the tunnel.
“The most important thing is the truth.”
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