Tori Towey: Women in Dubai cells is ‘harrowing’ thought

Ms Towey said she met women of various nationalities – including a woman from the Philippines who said she had been there for 10 years.

“I was obviously very anxious, I was very worried and she kind of calmed me down and told me everything was going to be okay, but she had been there 10 years,” she detailed.

She described the women she met in the police station as “lovely”, but their situations made her think she “could be here for months”.

“They’ve never gone outside. They’ve never been told what’s happening to them. And they’re there for very ‘wrong place, wrong time’, like very minor things,” she said.

“I got out, but I keep thinking about the other girls that are stuck in there for months and months and months. I’ve never been able to stop thinking about that.”

She added: “It’s harrowing to think about. It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot since leaving there.

“I just feel so sorry for those people, so sorry for them, because I feel like they will spend their whole entire life there and never get out.”