CAT/C/DEU/CO/5 have been introduced. The Committee remains further concerned at the lack of legal provisions providing redress and compensation in such cases (arts. 2, 10, 12, 14 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Ensure the effective application of legal and medical standards following the best practices of granting informed consent to medical and surgical treatment of intersex people, including full information, orally and in writing, on the suggested treatment, its justification and alternatives; (b) Undertake investigation of incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex people without effective consent and adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation; (c) Educate and train medical and psychological professionals on the range of sexual, and related biological and physical, diversity; and (d) Properly inform patients and their parents of the consequences of unnecessary surgical and other medical interventions for intersex people. Refugees and international protection 21. While taking note that the transfers under the Dublin II Regulation to Greece have been suspended due to difficult reception conditions, the Committee notes with concern that the present suspension of returns, due to expire on 12 January 2012, might be terminated prior to the amelioration of the reception conditions in Greece (art. 3). The State party is encouraged to prolong the suspension of forced transfers of asylumseekers to Greece in January 2012, unless the situation in the country of return significantly improves. 22. While noting that asylum applications falling under the Dublin II Regulation are subject to appeal, the Committee is concerned that under article 34a, paragraph 2, of the German Law on Asylum Procedure, lodging of an appeal does not have suspension effect on the impugned decisions (art. 3). The Committee also recommends that the State party abolish the legal provisions of the Asylum Procedures Act excluding suspensive effects of the appeals against decision to transfer an asylum-seeker to another State participating in the Dublin system. 23. The Committee takes note of the lack of procedural counselling for asylum-seekers before a hearing is carried out by asylum authorities, and that legal aid is paid for a lawyer in appeals against negative decisions only if the appeal is likely to succeed according to the court’s summary assessment (arts. 3, 11 and 16). The Committee calls on the State party to guarantee access to independent, qualified and free-of-charge procedural counselling for asylum-seekers before a hearing is carried out by asylum authorities, guarantee access to legal aid for needy asylumseekers after a negative decision, as long as the remedy is not obviously without a prospect for success. Detention pending deportation 24. The Committee notes a decrease in numbers and duration of detention of foreign nationals. However, it is concerned at the information that several thousand asylum-seekers whose requests have been rejected and a vast majority of those who are the subject in socalled “Dublin cases” continue to be accommodated in Länder detention facilities immediately upon arrival, sometimes for protracted periods of time. This practice contravenes Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on 7