‘What we got was like dog food’

A REPORT by a Joint Select Committee on Human Rights said detainees at the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in Aripo, were fed three times a day with a varied menu which included lamb, minced chicken, fish, turkey and sauteed vegetables.

But a former detainee (name given) said the food was sub-standard “at best” and the menu highlighted was “greatly exagerrated.” The State spent over $10 million between 2016 and 2018 feeding the detainees. But the report and its detail of the menus were not consistent with previous reports from detainees about poor living conditions and diet.

The anonymous ex-detainee said, “We would sometimes get chicken. On Saturdays we would get a water soup without any meat. If what we get was turkey, it had no flavour, no seasoning. Nothing was prepared properly. What are they talking about saffron rice and sauteed vegetable and fresh salad? Nothing like that!”

He said the menu which showed they received jumbo hot dogs and hamburgers with relish was an exaggeration. “It was an ordinary small hot dog and burger. For breakfast we would get two hops with some cheese paste and a bottle of water. Maybe once a month we would get saltfish buljol and the sausage was one slice – it was like a treat for us.

“Dinner was the worst. It was some white macaroni they boiled in plain water and throw some kind of sauce. It was like dog food. The only okay meal was at lunch and the amount was small. Everybody used to complain how they were always hungry, but nobody was allowed to bring in cooked food for us. They had a list with things like cornflakes and so on.”

He said every month they would get two small packets of sugar and teabags, but they did not have hot water. He added that during February and March this year there was no medication for detainees, “not even a Panadol.” He said there were diabetics who had no medication, and the pharmacy that supplied the IDC stopped making deliveries because of non payment by the Immigration Division.

The food described in the report is also a far cry from what inmates receive in prisons. A prisons officer, who spoke to the Newsday anonymously, said breakfast and dinner in prisons were usually the same every day, with some variation.

“For breakfast they will get bread with cheese, or sausage, or eggs, with cocoa to drink. That is what they usually get for dinner, too. For lunch it is rice with some kind of peas and chicken, sometimes fish. The food served in the IDC is better than what they have in the prisons because that food is catered.

“I can’t say if they get lamb and turkey, but I know they get whatever the caterers have. I know some of the detainees who are held for committing a crime and brought to the prison complain about the food because they say they get baked chicken at the IDC, and they can’t handle the prison diet.” Calls to Chief Immigration Officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews went unanswered.