The State party should take appropriate measures to ensure the effective functioning of the Ombudsman institution, including the requisite human and financial resources. Furthermore, the State party is encouraged to seek accreditation with the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions to ensure that it complies with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), annexed to General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 4 March 1994, including with regard to its independence. Fundamental safeguards (7) The Committee notes that the new Criminal Procedure Law includes a specific reference to fundamental legal safeguards for detainees, such as access to a defence counsel, but it regrets the lack of a specific reference to the right of access to a doctor. Furthermore, the Committee expresses its concern at reports that the right of effective access to a lawyer is not always realised in practice. In this respect, the Committee is concerned at reports of a shortage of state funded defence lawyers in several districts, especially rural areas, and that the working conditions provided for lawyers in detention and remand centres are not always satisfactory (arts. 2, 13 and 16). The State party should take effective measures to ensure that all detainees are afforded fundamental legal safeguards in practice, including the right to have access to a lawyer and a doctor. The Committee emphasizes that persons in custody should benefit from an effective right of access to a lawyer, as from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty and throughout the investigation phase, the whole of the trial and during appeals. Furthermore, the State party should ensure that the lawyers are provided with proper working conditions in the detention and remand centres equivalent to the facilities available in prisons and finance the newly established Legal Assistance Agency. Asylum-seekers (8) While noting the amendment of the Asylum Law on 20 January 2005 with the deletion of the provision requiring the asylum application to be submitted in writing, the Committee regrets the lack of clarity on the total number of persons seeking asylum in the State party as well as the low asylum recognition rate. The Committee is also concerned at the detention policy applied to asylum seekers and at the short time limits, in particular for the submission of an appeal under the accelerated asylum procedure. Furthermore, the Committee notes that detained foreigners, including asylum seekers, have the right to contact the consular services of their respective country and are entitled to receive legal aid but it is concerned at information provided by the State party delegation that no asylum seekers have requested such legal aid (arts. 2, 3, 11 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party should: (a) Take measures to ensure that detention of asylum seekers is used only in exceptional circumstances or as a last resort, and then only for the shortest possible time; (b) Ensure that anyone detained under immigration law has effective legal means of challenging the legality of administrative decisions to detain, deport or return (refouler) him/her and extend, in practice, the right to be assisted by assigned counsel to foreigners being detained with a view to their deportation or return (refoulement); (c) Extend the time limits established under the accelerated asylum procedure, in particular in order to guarantee that persons whose applications for asylum have been rejected can lodge an effective appeal; and (d) Provide, in the next periodic report, detailed and disaggregated statistics on the number of persons seeking asylum in the State party and the number of such persons in detention. Furthermore, the State party is encouraged to promptly adopt the draft law on the Asylum in the Republic of Latvia which was formally approved during the session of the Committee of the Cabinet of Ministers on 26 March 2007 and is currently being examined in the Parliament. 20