Over the summer, the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published several reports which put strong focus on the treatment of migrants.
On 23 June, it published the report on its last year's visit to the Netherlands, together with the response of the authorities. The visit concerned the European part of the Kingdom, as well as Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
As for the European part of the Kingdom, the CPT received no allegations of deliberate physical ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by the police, in immigration detention centres and in prison establishments by staff. The CPT reiterates that it is inappropriate to apply prison rules to persons held in immigration detention, given its administrative nature. At the same time, material conditions in the detention centres visited were very good. At the Closed Family Unit (GGV) at Zeist, families with children and women could benefit from a non-carceral and family-type living environment. The CPT nevertheless encourages the Dutch authorities to apply alternatives to immigration detention, especially for persons with vulnerabilities, such as victims of torture or trafficking, children, or families with young children. At Rotterdam Detention Centre, the Committee found low staffing levels and a poor regime of activities, and foreign nationals were often and routinely subjected to solitary confinement.
Outside its European part, the CPT found that material conditions at Simpson Bay Immigration Detention Facility in Sint Maarten were acceptable in several respects. However, material conditions offered to men at Dakota Immigration Detention Facility in Aruba, who were accommodated in shipping containers, and at the “Illegalen Barakken” Immigration Detention Facility in Curaçao were very poor.
On 29 June, the CPT published the report on its ad hoc visit to the United Kingdom, focusing on the treatment of foreign nationals arriving by small boat in the UK after crossing the English Channel. The CPT visited the Western Jet Foil disembarkation site and the Manston Short-Term Holding Facility (STHF), where migrants are processed and held for the first 24 hours after their humanitarian rescue and arrival in the country, as well as the Kent Intake Unit in Dover for unaccompanied and separated children.staff interviews and records revealed that at Manston STHF during the period of mass arrivals, foreign nationals were held from a few days up to more than 40 days in overcrowded marquees with no furniture other than foam mattresses, limited sanitary facilities and access to a very confined area outside for fresh air. The CPT concluded that the cumulative effect of prolonged detention in very poor conditions may have exposed many of those detained at Manston STHF in October and early November 2022 to inhuman and degrading treatment. The report recommends that, as part of the process of reclassifying part of the facility as an STHF Residential Holding Room, the deficiencies in material conditions should be remedied.
With regard to the legal safeguards afforded to migrants, the UK authorities should ensure that all foreign nationals are not detained beyond the statutory limits and that they receive a written review of their period of detention at the legally prescribed intervals.
The report also points to the need to improve the coordination and quality control of the provision of healthcare, to reinforce medical confidentiality and to ensure that all migrants detained for more than 24 hours are subject to a mandatory medical screening. The report also comments on the inappropriateness of isolating agitated foreign nationals, while handcuffed, in a small, box-like, fenced-in area in the rear of a van. There should also be healthcare oversight of any separation measures. Further, the management oversight of the use of force against a detained foreign national should be more rigorous and include a medical examination of the persons concerned.
The treatment of migrants was also the central theme of the CPT's reports on ad hoc visits to Belgium and Cyprus, both carried out in November last year.
The two reports, published on 13 July, examine the treatment and conditions of detention of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation and the safeguards afforded to them in the context of their removal. The CPT sent, for the first time, two delegations to observe the preparations and conduct of a joint return operation (JRO) by air from Belgium and Cyprus to the Democratic Republic of Congo that took place on 8 November 2022. The return flight was organised by Belgium, with the participation among others of Cyprus, and was supported by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). This is the sixth removal operation by air monitored by the CPT over the past decade.