PRE-DEPORTATION DETENTION FACILITIES hours in the afternoon. Both the men and women are given access to the yard during these times. These hours should be extended. Since detainees awaiting deportation are not prisoners, they should only be subject to those restrictions which are absolutely necessary in regard to the enforcement of the deprivation of liberty. That is why the detention rooms should be unlocked for as long as possible and detainees should be given access to the courtyard and the shower rooms when they are allowed out of their rooms. An exemplary rule is applied in BerlinKöpenick Pre-Deportation Detention Facility, where detention rooms are only locked during shift changeovers and access is provided to the recreation yard several times each day. In Ingelheim Detention Centre for Persons Required to Leave the Country unlocking times are between 7 am and 10 pm every day, and detainees have access to the recreation yard and the showers during those times. According to the prison management, the social service lets detainees awaiting deportation make telephone calls every other week. Other calls may be authorised in urgent cases. However, it is often difficult for detainees to make calls to their home countries on account of the connection failing. The Joint Commission is aware that for security reasons on account of the facility also being used to enforce other types of detention, detainees may not use mobile phones. However, it would like to point out that the use of mobile phones is variously permitted in separate facilities enforcing custody pending deportation. At any rate, detainees awaiting deportation should be permitted regular access to a telephone which they can also use to phone abroad. The visiting times granted to detainees awaiting deportation (30 minutes per week) are comparatively short. Considerably longer visiting times should be granted, as is the case in the facilities in Ingelheim, Berlin and Büren. Prison staff reported that no professional interpreter is brought in during the admission meeting and the initial medical examination of detainees awaiting deportation. Where communication problems arise, other detainees are, where possible, used to interpret, including prisoners. Sometimes communication is only possible using sign language, they said. Sometimes even day-to-day life in the unit was only possible by communicating by indirect means. This was also the conclusion the Joint Commission drew after it inspected the files of detainees awaiting deportation, since applications were often written by other people. Detainees awaiting deportation are often at particular risk on account of their background (flight, experiencing violence). Because they often suffer from mental illnesses, custody awaiting deportation is a particularly stressful situation for those affected. The following is taken from the resolution adopted in 2011 at the 114th German Medical Assembly: “It is a well-known fact that the health of detainees awaiting deportation deteriorates whilst they are in custody. Detrimental conditions include a lack of information about the reason for and duration of their detention, being accommodated together with prisoners, isolation, not being able to communicate due to language barriers, retraumatisation following trauma experienced during earlier arrests and periods in detention, and the lack of 31 psychological and medical care.” Against this backdrop it is especially important that staff are able to get as broad a picture of a detainee’s mental and physical state as possible. Firstly, drawing in other detainees to interpret does not guarantee that what those affected say is rendered fully and correctly in German. Secondly, it also does not ensure a confidential atmosphere during the meeting. It should be ensured that interpreters, where necessary external interpreters, are called in to take part in admission meetings and especially medical examinations. It must also be possible for staff and detainees awaiting deportation to communicate on a day-to-day basis in the wing. During its inspection of the pre-deportation detention wing in the women’s prison the Joint Commission found that in some cases staff were not able to communicate with the detainees. When Mühldorf am Inn Prison becomes the central facility responsible for enforcing custody pending deportation, attention should be paid to the targeted selection of personnel to work in this area. Staff should have various cultural backgrounds and cover as large a spectrum of languages as possible. The civil servants employed in the Pre-Deportation Detention Wing are not given any specific training in dealing with detainees awaiting deportation. However, this group of people find themselves in a very specific situation on account of their facing deportation. At Mannheim Prison, for instance, staff in the Pre-Deportation Detention Wing are given special training. The National Agency suggests organising similar courses for staff in the new unit to be set up at Mühldorf am Inn Prison. The women’s prison has a shower room which is used by all the prisoners and female detainees awaiting deportation. The latter are permitted to use the showers on weekdays during unlocking times. When enforcing custody pending deportation in a specialised facility, unrestricted access should in 31 German Medical Council (2011), 114th German Medical Assembly, Resolution, p. 125 64