independence from government institutions. Furthermore, as discussed above, the ability for NGOs and monitoring bodies to access places of detention often depends on the Detention Administration’s good will.46 This can create a conflict: do they prioritise reporting all forms of abuse that are suffered by detainees or focus on maintaining a right of access by not rocking the boat too much? This situation can further isolate detainees and disincentivise reporting. Legal and financial limitations Clearly, the ability of victims of violent crime in detention to exercise their Victims’ Rights requires them to be legally recognised as holders of those rights. Croatia, for example, limits the ability of non-EU nationals to access Victims’ Rights (including the right to state compensation and the availability of legal aid). In the Netherlands, victims of crime that happened in another EU country may only file a complaint in the Netherlands if: (a) they are ‘habitual residents’ in the Netherlands; and (b) they either (i) did not have the opportunity to file a complaint in the country where the offence took place; or (ii) in the case of serious offences, they did not wish to file a complaint there.47 In practice, the criterion of “habitual residence” leaves undocumented migrants who are victims of violent crime with no right to file 46 47 48 49 20 a complaint. This seems to contradict the Directive’s provision that: “[t]he rights set out in this Directive shall apply to victims in a non-discriminatory manner, including with respect to their residence status”.48 Even where the law does, in theory, protect a person’s Victims’ Rights, in practice this will often require sufficient resources to be dedicated to the realisation of those rights. This issue is discussed further in the following section of the report, however, one systemic issue which emerged in several Member States was the impact of insufficient investment in Detention Staff and the implications of this for Victims’ Rights. Numbers of Detention Staff were generally considered insufficient, with insufficient training provided and difficult working conditions. This in turn causes a high turnover among the staff, which impacts the quality of their training and the professional experience. Understaffing, like overcrowding, has a direct impact on the occurrence of violence in detention, in particular on interdetainee violence:49 An insufficient ratio of staff to detainees can make it difficult for staff to supervise inmates effectively and results in a lack of security for themselves, making it difficult to protect detainees from inter-prisoner violence. European Prison Litigation Network white paper on access to justice for pre-trial detainees, Bringing Justice into Prison: For a common European Approach, 2019, pp. 61-62, available at: https://www.prisonlitigation.org/livre-blanc-sur-lacces-au-droit-et-au-juge-en-detention-provisoire/?lang=en. REDRESS, The Rights of Victims of Violent Crimes in Pre-Trial and Immigration Detention: Report on The Netherlands, March 2019, p. 44, Section 4.5, available at: https://redress.org/news/new-report-on-the-rights-of-victims-of-violent-crimes-in-pre-trial-and-immigration-detention-in-the-netherlands/. Article 1 of the 2012 Directive. Human Rights Council, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the SecretaryGeneral, Human rights in the administration of justice, 2019, A/HRC/42/20, p. 6, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/session42/Pages/ListReports.aspx.