During the ad hoc visit to Greece in January 2011, the CPT’s delegation examined the treatment of migrants held in aliens detention centres, particularly in the Attica and Evros regions, as well as the situation in several prisons. The visit had been preceded, some 12 months earlier, by high-level talks with the Greek authorities, which were focused on the need to improve the conditions of detention of irregular migrants and address long-standing problems in the prison system.
Further, the treatment of persons detained under aliens legislation was a focus of many of the visits, for example to Belgium, Greece, Poland and Ukraine. Particular attention was paid to the situation of life-sentenced prisoners during the visits to Armenia and Ukraine.
The geographical enlargement of the CPT’s activities has been accompanied by an enlargement of the Committee’s work in terms of the types of places visited. At the outset, CPT visits were centred mainly on police and prison establishments. However, the Committee has progressively explored in depth the whole gamut of deprivation of liberty, from involuntary placement in psychiatric establishments to the administrative detention of foreigners under aliens legislation, detention centres for juveniles and social welfare establishments for the mentally disabled or elderly.
The situation of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation was the focus of the ad hoc visit to Ukraine in December 2007. The CPT’s delegation reviewed progress made in this area following its previous visit to Ukraine in 2005 and, in particular, returned to the State Border Service’s Temporary Holding Centre in Pavshino; the Committee had expressed serious concerns about conditions of detention in that centre in the report on the 2005 visit (that report is available on the CPT’s website).
[…]The programme of a periodic visit will typically cover various types of establishments (police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for minors) located in different parts of the country concerned. Particular attention was given during certain visits (for example, to Germany, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine) to the treatment of foreign nationals detained under immigration legislation. […]
[…]The programme of a periodic visit will typically cover various types of establishments (police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for minors) located in different parts of the country concerned. Particular attention was given during certain visits (for example, to Germany, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine) to the treatment of foreign nationals detained under immigration legislation. […]
Several of the visits focused on the situation of “immigration detainees”. This was the case, for example, of the ad hoc visit to Malta in January 2004, organised following the receipt of several critical reports during the second half of 2003. Malta had since 2001 experienced a sharp and unprecedented increase in the number of irregular migrants, who were systematically detained when caught. The CPT’s delegation examined the manner in which these persons were treated by custodial staff as well as their conditions of detention.
The CPT continues to pay considerable attention to the treatment of immigration detainees. As well as being a regular feature of programmes of periodic visits, this subject was addressed during two ad hoc visits in 2002, to France and the United Kingdom.
Visits may be carried out to any place “where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority”. The CPT's mandate thus extends beyond prisons and police stations to encompass, for example, psychiatric institutions, detention areas at military barracks, holding centres for asylum seekers or other categories of foreigners, and places in which young persons may be deprived of their liberty by judicial or administrative order.
The visit to Germany in May 1998 was organised in order to verify the conditions of detention of immigration detainees at Frankfurt am Main Airport, as well as to examine the procedures for enforcement of removal orders. Prior to the visit, the CPT had received critical reports of those conditions as well as allegations of the use of excessive force during the enforcement of removal orders.
Visits may be carried out to any place "where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority". The CPT's mandate thus extends beyond prisons and police stations, to encompass psychiatric institutions, detention areas at military barracks, holding centres for asylum seekers or other categories of foreigners, and places in which young or old persons may be deprived of their liberty by judicial or administrative order.