ABSTRACT
Taqi Nekoyee, a young man from Afghanistan, died on 28 February 2012 in the Pontianak immigration detention centre (UNHCR 2012f). The autopsy on his body revealed massive wounds resulting from severe beatings, cigarette burns and torture, which he had suffered during the previous night. Taqi had arrived in Indonesia in mid-2011 and applied to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee status, hoping to be resettled in a safe third country. He had been in custody in the Pontianak immigration detention centre since early November 2011 for breaching travel restrictions imposed on asylum seekers (Amnesty International 2012). Two days before his death, Taqi escaped from the detention centre together with five Afghani friends. The following day, the police re-captured three of them, including Taqi (Warga Afganistan tewas 2012). The initial report filed upon their return to the immigration detention centre stated that the re-arrested men were in good health. In the night following the arrest, Taqi was beaten to death by a group of ten guards in the detention centre (Haryanto 2012; Komnas HAM Kalbar kunjungi imigran korban penganiayaan 2012).
