【絕食第54日】【54th Day of Hunger Strike: Update & Volunteers' Thoughts】
54th day of hunger strike I visited the CIC detention centre intending to meet a hunger striker who had been beaten, to learn the facts of the case. It was important that I meet him as he hardly spoke any English and I could talk in Hindi - one of his languages. However, the detainees are only allowed one visit a day and he had been met already by someone else. What kind of detention centre doesn’t allow the detainees translators, is it not a transit place, from where the detainees need to leave soon after arguing their cases and explaining their situation to the Immigration department. How do they do that if they do not speak the same language?
絕食第54天，我探訪了CIC羈留中心，打算與昨日遭到毆打的絕食者會面，以了解案情。去見他很重要，因為他幾乎不會說英語，而我可以用他的語言印度語與他溝通。但是，被羈留者每天只允許接受一次探視，而他今日已經被其他人探過。什麼樣的羈留中心不允許被羈留者得到翻譯幫助，這裡不是一個中轉點，從被羈留者為自己申訴到將自己的情況陳述給入境事務處？如果他們無法說相同的語言，該怎麼辦？
Instead of meeting the injured detainee, I met another hunger striker. He had gone from 106 kg to 86 kg over his strike and detention. He had been in detention for 15 months. He was grateful that HongKongers were taking an interest in their fate, as prior to CIC detainees right concern group’s actions they were only allowed visitors whom they knew and had named in a register. He said, he had many friends, but they did not know each other formally and knew only each other’s nick names. Thus, none of them could visit him in detention. He also only read Hindi or Punjabi, his English was too poor to support reading without a dictionary. So, he had asked for books in his languages. He has had no lawyer nor any one who could explain his situation correctly to the department. Was there ever going to be a fair end to his detention ? What is the possibility of justice when language is such a big barrier to communication?
由於無法見到被毆打的被羈留者，我於是探訪了另一位絕食者。在絕食和羈留期間，他的體重從106公斤減少至86公斤。他被羈留了15個月。他很感謝香港人對自己命運的關注，因為在CIC被羈留者權利關注組採取行動之前，他們只被允許接受本人認識且登記在冊的來訪者。他說自己有很多朋友，但他們之間並不正式相識，只知道彼此的暱稱。因此，沒有人可以在羈留期間探望他。他也只可閱讀印度語或旁遮普語，他的英語不太好，如沒有字典，是完全無法閱讀英文的。因此，他需要閱讀使用自己語言的書籍。他沒有律師，也沒有任何人可以幫他向入境處正確解釋自己的情況。對他的羈留可能有一個公平的結局嗎？當語言成為交流的巨大障礙時，正義的可能性是什麼？
— A
21 August 2020
#solidaritywithalldetainees
#freedomnow
#abolishCIC
