     If a person is fearful of flying, there should be a medical report, including the prescribed medicines. If a person being removed or deported is chronically ill, the authorities in the target country should be informed of the person’s medical needs if there is a legal basis for doing so. A sufficient amount of baby food must be made available. Good conduct of interviews with due regard for the situation should be standardised. Professional interpreters should be used during (forced) returns. 2.7.2.2 Role conflicts of the Association of Human Rights Austria As one of its last recommendations (June 2012), the former Human Rights Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Interior suggested that the Association of Human Rights Austria (Verein Menschenrechte Österreich) should not be entrusted to be the sole contractor in the capacity of human rights observer. Moreover, conflicting roles for the Association of Human Rights Austria as human rights observer, interpreter and return counsellor should be avoided. It was upon the recommendation of the commissions, that the AOB initiated ex-officio investigative proceedings in early 2013. The question was whether the Federal Ministry of the Interior should also hire additional organisations as human rights observers in the future. The Federal Ministry of the Interior said it had accepted the proposal of the former Human Rights Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Accordingly, the Ministry was already discussing activities as future human rights observers with other NGOs. The Federal Ministry of the Interior said it intended to rotate various NGOs as human rights observers. However, no decision had been made in this regard by the end of 2014. Human rights observers In addition, the NPM criticised the Association of Human Rights Austria in its capacity as interpreter in many cases. This related to the quality of the interpreting services as well as the risk of role conflicts if the organisation functioned both as interpreter and return counsellor. Thus the commissions observed, for example, that, in the course of contact meetings, employees of the Association of Human Rights Austria attempted to “convince” persons being deported to cooperate with police and not resist the forced return. Role conflicts of the Association of Human Rights Austria The NPM is of the opinion – as was the former Human Rights Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Interior – that combining various functions in a single entity inexorably leads to role conflicts because the underlying interests and goals of the functions are different. While (social) support during forced return or detention pending forced return is typically based on a relationship of trust with the person being supported, the activities of a professional interpreter must be strictly objective and must proceed from a position that is independent 140

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