On 9 May 2019, the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published the report on its ad hoc visit to Germany carried out in August 2018, together with the response of the German authorities. The report concerns the monitoring of a return flight of Afghan nationals from Munich to Kabul (Afghanistan) on 14 August 2018, carried out under the authority of the German Federal Police and in co-operation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The CPT’s delegation observed all stages of the removal operation, including the preparations at Eichstätt Prison (Centre for detention pending deportation) in Bavaria. This was the fifth time the CPT has examined a removal operation by air.
The CPT concludes that the operation was well prepared and generally carried out in a professional manner. Detained persons were treated correctly by escorting police officers, with one exception. The exception concerns the apparent ill-treatment of a returnee on board the aircraft who violently resisted his removal. The CPT recommends that techniques which impede a person’s capacity to breath and/or inflict severe pain to gain compliance (i.e. squeezing a person’s genitals) must not be applied by police escorts. Further, all escorting police officers should wear means of identification during removal operations and the overall number of trained escorts should be increased.
The CPT also recommends strengthening safeguards for foreign nationals to be returned. It is crucial that no person is removed from Germany while appeal proceedings that have suspensive effect are still pending before a court; this should be verified in practice by means of a “last call procedure”. The Committee is critical of the practice of late or even last-minute notification of returnees of their impending removal on the day of their scheduled flight. Persons at risk of self-harm and/or suicide or with mental health problems should undergo a comprehensive medical assessment. Moreover, the existing complaints mechanism should be made accessible and effective in practice, including by providing adequate information to returnees on how to make a complaint.
In the context of its periodic visit to Denmark from 3 to 12 April 2019, the CPT delegation visited two establishments for detained migrants, namely Nykøbing Falster Arrest and Ellebæk Centre for Foreigners.