Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 Gendarmerie officers who have direct contact with detainees lowers the probability of ill treatment. The staff of a Centre should know how to work with difficult detainees without harming them, how to provide first aid to persons in various physical or mental states, how to cope with stress and aggression, how to systematically update this knowledge and, finally, how to improve their skills In the CPT standards233 it is pointed out that there is no better guarantee against ill-treatment of a person deprived of liberty than a properly trained police or prison officer. CPT emphases in particular the need to develop interpersonal communication skills. According to the information submitted by Commanders of the visited DCMGs, when a female soldier is detained in a Centre, the admissions related actions are performed by a properly trained female officer. The National Preventive Mechanism recommended: • To conduct regular trainings of soldiers who have been assigned to a Centre. 2.9. Centres for Foreigners In 2011, the Human Rights Defender, acting in the capacity of the National Preventive Mechanism, did not carry out any visits in detention centres for foreigners chiefly due to the difficult financial situation and the insufficient number of employees. However, the situation of persons detained in remand centres in order to be returned to their country of origin, as well as of persons in guarded detention centres for foreigners, still remains within the sphere of interest of the Human Rights Defender. The Human Rights Defender has on many occasions called for debate on the issue of legalising foreigners’ stay in Poland. Supporting yet another abolition scheme for foreigners, in her letter of 17 May 2011 to the Director of Migration Policy Department234, as well as in her address of 21 June 2011 to the Minister of the Interior and Administration235, the Human Rights Defender presented her proposal regarding the said abolition. In the opinion of the Defender, the number of requirements that foreigners have to comply with to be granted a residence permit to stay in Poland should be limited to two, i.e. the required length of stay, and establishing that a foreigner does not pose a threat to defensive capacity, security and public order. Thanks to, among others, the Defender’s involvement, on 28 July 2011 the Act on the legalisation of stay of certain foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Poland, amending the Act on granting protection to foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Poland and amending the Act on foreigners236, was adopted. In 2011, the Human Rights Defender, acting within the framework of the Group for Administrative Law and Economic Law, launched a study devoted to the implementation  See: §59 and 60 of the 2nd General Report [CPT/Inf (92) 3].  RPO-667500-V/11/MS.  RPO-R-071-27/11. 236  Dz. U. No 191, item 1133. 233 234 235 130