Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011 of right to education of juvenile foreigners’ staying in the guarded centres for foreigners. To this end, Chief Commanders of the Border Guard were asked to provide relevant information, and visits were carried out in schools attended by children staying in Centres for Foreigners Applying for Refugee Status. Already in 2012 the Human Rights Defender addressed the Minister of Interior237 asking him to consider the possibility to take a legislative initiative aimed at introducing a ban to place children and their guardians in guarded centres for foreigners. Issues related to respecting the rights of foreigners placed in detention centres were also discussed by the Association for Legal Intervention (hereinafter: ALI) and by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (hereinafter: HFHR). Last year, the Association, same as the Human Rights Defender, highlighted the problems resulting from placing juveniles in guarded centres. Detained juveniles are not able to fulfil their schooling obligation, whereas the rules they have to obey while staying in a centre are virtually the same as for adults. Another problem pinpointed by ALI is related to the lack of mechanisms and adequately trained staff to identify foreigners – victims of torture, detained even though such practice is against the applicable law238. Another issue is related to the regime applied in detention facilities, based chiefly on the provisions of Executive Penal Code, which in practice leads to a situation where foreigners have to observe even stricter rules than those enforced against some categories of prisoners (e.g. rules related to the access to fresh air, or to the possibility to move around the premises). The problem of placing juveniles in guarded centres for foreigners was also noted by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. The conditions in these centres do not meet the norms which should be obeyed taking account of the needs of juveniles, which can mean that placing a juvenile in such an establishment may have a negative effect on his/ her physical and psychological development. Due to the above, HFHR has suggested that detaining juveniles in guarded centres – without custody or staying with their families – should be prohibited, and that some alternative preventive measures should be applied, which do not involve depriving a juvenile of his/her liberty. Moreover, the representatives of the Foundation have pointed out certain problems related to the restricted access of foreigners to physicians, including specialists, as well as to the impossibility to communicate with physicians due to the lack of interpreters, and the lack of constant and sufficient psychological assistance, as well as of posttraumatic stress disorder therapists. In the opinion of the National Preventive Mechanism, the issues investigated by the Group for Administrative Law and Economic Law at the Defender’s Office and by the HFHR are extremely important for protecting the rights of foreigners placed in detention facilities. The situation of persons detained in remand centres in order to be returned to  RPO-695531-V/12/MS of 4 April 2012.  Article 88(2) of the Act of 13 June 2003 on granting protection to foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Poland (Dz. U. No 128, item 1176, as amended); Article 103 of the Act of 13 June 2003 on foreigners (Dz. U. No 128, item 1175, as amended). 237 238 131