deportation centres and guarded centres, as well as their everyday relations with
foreigners detained in those establishments.
There were occasional acts of applying coercive measures towards detained
persons by personnel in visited establishments. Such incidents were recorded in an
event log kept by officers and in service reports.
Too frequent an application of strip searches in the Deportation Centre in
Szczecin raised doubts of the visitors. Both foreigners admitted to the Deportation
Centre and persons enjoying a walk were subject to personal controls (the so-called
hand search or by use of a metal detector). According to visitors, the character of a
visited establishment, and particularly the fact that this was not a typical place of
detention for perpetrators of prohibited acts, did not justify frequent personal controls
of persons detained therein.
Controls, and particularly frequency of detailed inspections in residential rooms
carried out by BG officers, as well as using service dogs for these activities, were also
the ground to draw attention to this problem during the visit to the Guarded Centre in
Krosno Odrzańskie.
Another doubt that arose was the practice of placing a list of detained persons
by names at every cell by the personnel of the Deportation Centre in Lubań. These lists
included personal information of foreigners, their dates of birth, citizenship, as well as
dates of expected release. The lists also included detained persons’ photographs.
In the view of visitors, such way of informing third parties about the
identity of foreigners detained in a Deportation Centre seems unjustifiable and
can also infringe the right of such persons to have their own personal data
protected. Apart from BG officers, all inmates and third parties, e.g. visitors,
have access to such information.
In response to remarks made by the representatives of the National Preventive
Mechanism, commanders of visited units presented their written positions.
As regards the remarks concerning multiple controls of foreigners detained in
the Deportation Centre in Szczecin, the Deputy Commander of Nadodrzański Border
Guard Unit explained that in accordance with Article 34 and 35 of Regulations No 2 of
the Chief Commander of the Border Guard of 20 March 2008 on performing the
service by Border Guard officers in a guarded centre for foreigners and in rooms of a
deportation centre, officers performing service in rooms of the Deportation Centre
carry out daily cell inspections during the detained persons’ walk and the foreigners
are subject to personal control after the walk and in cases specified by regulations. The
Commander indicated that this is particularly important since the walking area directly
borders on the public road and there is a possibility for foreigners to obtain dangerous
objects during their walks.
As regards similar remarks, the Commander of the Nadodrzański Border Guard
Unit in Krosno Odrzańskie indicated that rooms for foreigners and other rooms of the
Guarded Centre are subject to inspection at least once a week, in accordance with
Article 1 of the Regulations concerning the stay of foreigners in a guarded centre or a
deportation centre, which is an annex to the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior
and Administration of 26 August 2004 on conditions in guarded centres for foreigners
room or a cell (see Article 10 of the Rules of organization and order of the foreigners' stay in the guarded
centres and deportation centres for foreigners).
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