Behrouz Boochani, brutalised but not beaten by Manus, says simply: 'I did my best'

After six hellish years inside Australia's offshore detention regime, Boochani reflects on the country that rejected him, his new-found freedom and the friends he left behind

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"One day," Behrouz Boochani said, observing the bleakness of the abandoned Manus detention centre, its dark form illuminated by wood stripped from the buildings being burned for light, "we will meet in some other place, far away from here."

That was two years ago, in the middle of a warm November night, when Boochani helped smuggle this reporter into the decommissioned Manus Island detention centre where 400 men were holding out against being forcibly removed: rationing their dwindling supply of food and medicine, guarding against the violent police crackdown they knew was coming, repairing the freshwater wells that had been deliberately spoiled by the retreating guards.