Freed Blackwood man says check your visa
22 February 2015, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
Capital speaks to the man who was locked up in a notorious Indonesian Prison for six months after failing to tell authorities he'd changed his job.
Twenty five year old Mathew Davies initially went to Indonesia to start a new job with a computer firm, but after a few months the job fell through and he took up work in a local restaurant to make money.
He'd failed to tell authorities he’d changed job meaning his working visa had ran out in their eyes.
Mathew was then arrested and jailed in August last year.
Six months later he's managed to negotiate his way out and finally got a plane home.
He's now warning other travellers to check their visa before heading out and to make sure they know the laws in the country they're travelling to.
Speaking from his family’s home in Blackwood Mathew tells Capital he wouldn't wish it on anyone.
He says...
'It's not like our prisons, the prison out there is third world ugly.
I didn't know the system; I didn't know anything... all that was going through my head was how I was going to get out.
I felt the whole world was on my shoulders, I felt so alone...my country had abandoned me...I was in there for six months longer than I should of been.'
Mathew's mum Yvonne tried everything she could to bring Mathew home...she tells Capital to have him home is like a miracle...
She says...
'When I went to airport to pick him up...I just ran to him...I couldn't believe he was finally home...it just felt amazing...
...I'll be hiding his passport from now on.'
Mathew has only been home a week but is already planning another trip away...he says 'Blackwood just isn't for me, there's no opportunities here'.
