Ali Mullaie teaching computer skills to pupils at Nauru College in April 2005, when he first met Michael Gordon. "What can I say? We connected." Michael Gordon met Ali Mullaie in April 2005, when he was the first journalist allowed on Nauru during the final phase of the Pacific Solution, Mark 1. Ali, then 22, was one of the last 54 detainees still stranded on the island. He has a clear memory of their first meeting. "It was in the computer lab in Nauru College, where I was a teacher of English and computer science. The connection was instant. I could feel it. I was appointed his interpreter. We spent a lot of time walking around the island. He wondered if my name was Ali or Sir, because everywhere I went, the students called me sir. He saw how they ran up to me and how we walked together. He saw that the locals respected me because I taught their children, and because I was engaged with the community. He understood my achievement. "On Nauru, I taught myself English and computer science. I did not waste my time. But I had no family. Michael could truly hear me. Until then no one outside Nauru knew me. No one had told my story. And because he was there, and spent time with me, and with those inside the detention camp, and because he listened, he wrote the truth about our despair, and our aspirations."

'He introduced me to the Australian way of life': Michael Gordon, Ali Mullaie and Michael Gordon's wife Robyn Carter at the Long Walk 2005. Ali stresses: "He did not see me as a victim. Our friendship had nothing to do with this. It was not based on sympathy. He was human, and he saw me as human. "I want to get the words right, as if Michael is listening, and can feel what I am saying. We were born in separate countries, and came from different cultures. I was Hazara, but it made no difference. Our friendship was not about the past. It was about now, and about the future. It was about total trust, and about two human beings. Two Australians. I deeply miss him." April 2017: Michael Gordon with Loghman Sawari at the police station in Port Moresby where Sawari was held after his escape to Fiji. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The public knew Michael through his ground-breaking journalism about the plight of refugees and detained asylum seekers. But his involvement went far beyond the call of his profession. Michael was a loyal friend to some of the people he wrote about.

The two strands were distinct, but closely interwoven. This can be seen in Michael's relationship with Manus Island detainee Loghman Sawari. When Loghman heard the news of Michael's death, he too was shattered. "Michael will always be in my heart," he says. "He is one great man I met from Australia. I hope I will meet him again in heaven." Michael Gordon talking with Loghman Sawari in Port Moresby, April 2017. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In a report published in September 2015, Michael wrote: "When Loghman Sawari became the first refugee to attempt suicide after being released from the detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, the reaction was as swift as it was brutal. The teenager was transferred not in an ambulance, but in the back of the 10-seat vehicle of the island's police commissioner, and not to the hospital, but to the local lock-up, where he spent 24 hours in a small cell with about 20 locals." Michael continued to report Loghman's story over the ensuing years. He wrote of his daring escape to Fiji, his arrest and deportation, his jailing in Port Moresby, and the campaign for his release. He worked in close consultation with Loghman's friend and supporter, writer and advocate Janet Galbraith. Rohingyan refugee Imran Mohammad on Manus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"Michael's concern for Loghman's personal welfare always came first," she says. "He developed a personal relationship with him. Whenever he went to PNG he made sure he spent time with him. He was distressed by his vulnerability, and the immense suffering he endured at such a young age. When he was on the run, in Fiji, Michael called him many times and counselled him. His deep concern for his safety was his priority. Writing the story was the last resort." The two strands - Michael as journalist and friend - are evident in his mentoring of Rohingya detainee Imran Mohammad. When he was 16, Imran fled Myanmar in fear of his life. After a terrifying boat journey from Bangladesh to Malaysia and time as an indentured slave, Imran made it to Indonesia. His boat was intercepted en route to Australia and he is now in his fifth year of exile on Manus Island. Imran taught himself English and began writing about the plight of fellow detainees. Imran Mohammad and Michael Gordon on Manus Island, April 12, 2017. Credit:Mohammad Faisal "I studied Michael's work and approach to journalism," Imran says. "I read many articles which were written by him. I found his email address and sent my articles off to him. He took time to read and edit my writing, like a father checks his child's homework. He used to provide me with very useful suggestions about how to write powerful articles. "One of the important things I learned from him was how to organise an article with less words by keeping to the main message. It was very challenging for me, but I started to understand what he was trying to teach me. We communicated via email, but after a while we stayed in touch by WhatsApp. It became a personal friendship, and I met him when he came to Manus in 2017."

Reflecting on his impressions of Michael, Imran concludes: "He was a very calm, caring, sympathetic and passionate person. There was a feeling of safety in his company. He made the atmosphere very pleasant when I met him. He was more than just a friend to me. He was like a father." Behnam Satah during Michael Gordon's April 2017 visit to Manus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen When Kurdish-Iranian detainee Behnam Satah heard the news of Michael's death, he wept. "Michael was a brother," he says. "He was always checking on me and asking how I am and if I need anything. I cried for a long time. He was like family to me." Behnam witnessed the murder of his friend and roommate, fellow Kurdish-Iranian Reza Barati, during a night of violence on February 17, 2014. He saw him bashed to death by six people. Only two PNG locals have been charged and convicted. Despite ongoing death threats and intimidation by one of the convicted, and the denial of witness protection, Behnam gave evidence at the trial. "Michael was supporting me during my worst time in life while I was under threats and stress," Behnam says. "Describing him in words is very hard because there are no words that match his personality. I wish I could talk to him one more time and hear his voice again. I wish I could attend his funeral. Please buy flowers for me and give it to his family."

"As a journalist, Michael was always interested in the details," says social advocate Di Cousens, who assisted him in liaising with Behnam and other men on Manus island. "He always looked for the evidence. He asked for documents, photos of the injuries and details about the bashings, the attempted suicides. He chased the facts - the fact that Behnam had a terrible fungal infection in his hands which went untreated. Ali Mullaie arrives in Australia in 2008, after three years of detention. He is greeted at the airport by Dorothy Babb, who wrote to him while he was in detention. Babb is holding a Michael Gordon story about Ali's plight published in Credit:Sandy Scheltema "The fact that one detainee was beaten by two guards - one inside the room and one outside - after he was cut down after an attempted suicide by hanging. He asked to be notified when incidents occurred even in the middle of the night." Bearing witness, and engaging for years on end with the personal lives of detained asylum seekers, can take its toll. Janet Galbraith, who often met with Michael to discuss the ongoing horror, observes: "Like those of us who have seen it close up for so long, Michael began to feel so ineffectual, so helpless. It troubled him deeply. The people on Manus are still dying. People are going mad. It has not stopped. This eventually got to Michael." Michael's distress can be sensed in many of his stories. Reflecting upon Loghman Sawari's ordeal, he wrote: "What compelled the 19-year-old to turn a towel into a makeshift noose, attach it to a rafter outside his room and step from a chair to oblivion is hardly a mystery. His bottom lip trembles uncontrollably as he tries to explain that anger, despair and an all-consuming sense of hopelessness propelled him."

"My Manus Nightmare" by Michael Gordon, Credit:Fairfax Media In a piece published in December 2015 headlined "My Manus Island Nightmare", Michael writes of being haunted by the image of Loghman Sawari breaking down while he is trying to explain, on camera, how much he misses the mother who believes he has made it safely to Australia and is doing well. Contemplating the immovability of Australian government policy, Michael despairs: "There is a view that the situation on Manus, like that on Nauru, is unsustainable, and that eventually the penny will drop that the end does not justify the means, that punishing one group of people endlessly in order to deter others is immoral, and that there is another way to achieve the same policy objective. It used to be my view. Now I'm not so sure." Ali Mullaie is greeted upon his arrival in Australia in 2008 by Anne Horrigan-Dixon of the Fitzroy Learning Network. Credit:Sandy Scheltema Michael has left a legacy of work that documents the brutal consequences of Australia's offshore detention centres. When I asked Imran Mohammad why Michael's death has been so deeply felt by the men exiled on Manus Island, he replied: "He shone a powerful light on our plight for many years. He wrote about our lives with honesty and great respect. We reached out to him whenever there was a problem on Manus. He was our great voice out there. It is like we lost our right shoulder."

But Michael also left us with the antidote to that cruelty - his friendships with those who continue to endure it. My fondest memory of Michael is of him attending the social gatherings at the Fitzroy Learning Network back in the early 2000s. "Party therapy" is how those gatherings were known by Anne Horrigan-Dixon, under whose leadership the network became a refuge for many asylum seekers stranded on temporary visas. Michael was a gentle presence at the parties. Typically he stood to one side, beer in hand. Listening. Observing. Quietly nurturing friendships. He was deeply moved. He understood this was the heart of the story: community, and healing. A means of giving voice to the voiceless. Arnold Zable is a Melbourne writer. This is the fifth piece in the Philoxenia series. Michael Gordon's book Freeing Ali, about his 2005 encounter with Ali Mullaie and other detainees on Nauru, is published by the University of New South Wales Press.