ICRC delegates in discussion with officers at Pul-I-Charki prison prior to visiting detainees − The ICRC has worked in Afghan prisons for many years, to protect and assist people who have been detained as a result of the consecutive conflicts and other situations of violence, by Afghan authorities and forces such as the United States and NATO. Delegates regularly assess the conditions of detention, the treatment of detainees and respect of their fundamental judicial guarantees, through one-on-one interviews (without detaining authorities present). The ICRC facilitates contact with their families through the exchange of Red Cross messages (RCMs). Many Afghan detainees have qualified this support as ‘invaluable’, and as ‘giving them the courage to carry on’, despite the extreme hardship of incarceration.