But last month the European Court of Human Rights ruled that conditions at Greek immigrant detention centres are so squalid as to breach the ban on "torture or inhuman or degrading treatment".
Seldom have I seen a movie so – that detestable word, forgive me – uplifting and beautifully wrought about so squalid and agonising a subject.
But I remember one time, where I ended up in a prison cell, and it was so squalid.
But I remember a time, where I ended up in a prison cell, and it was so squalid.
Indeed, it is the relative triviality of the sums involved which make the whole episode so squalid.
Squalid That Welsh chose the Edinburgh books festival to reveal that he was writing the sequel has a certain symmetry.
Back in 1998, Muruganantham was startled when he learned that his wife used dirty cloths when she was menstruating -- cloths so squalid he wouldn't even use to clean his scooter -- because sanitary pads were too expensive, he told the BBC.
(He was a serial rapist of young girls, but the film, thank heaven, chooses only to glance at that habit; picture someone so morally squalid that his pedophilia counts as a sideline).
He was desperately poor, living in squalid rooms that teemed with mice.
