The British embassy or his friends couldn’t contact or find Miles initially due to a catch 22 situation. This is how we found him. Pretty crazy
When miles was brought to jail, a 3 star captain (high ranking officer) permitted miles to send a message and his location to his camera man on WhatsApp, but the message deleted after a few hours as “disappearing messages” was on and it never was read.
Miles didn’t have a toothbrush or toothpaste for 1 week or any entertainment , and with no other English speakers and no lawyer, he needed external help.
Prisoners are permitted to make a daily 5 min phone call, but it had to be from the local jail phone to local non premium Saudi numbers, and Miles couldn’t call the written down embassy number he had on a laminated piece of paper because it contained “11” at the start, a premium number in Saudi Arabia.
Miles couldn’t make any international calls as they’re a “security concern” as they are investigating miles for potential terrorist ties. Same with sending a message to a friend.
Therefore Miles, according to him, found a local English speaking number on some plastic packaging of some American cheese that came with a meal and told the cheese company he found a major health code issue and needed a call back.
He gave his friend abroad’s number as th callback number and told the guy to ask for “miles isin [jail name]” when calling.
Miles’ friend therefore was able to pass on Miles’ location to the embassy and they were able to visit him.