CPT: 14TH GENERAL REPORT 6. The main purpose of the ad hoc visit to Azerbaijan in January 2004 was to examine the treatment of persons who had been detained in relation to events which followed the Presidential election of mid-October 2003. According to reports received by the CPT, a large number of persons were arrested and it was alleged that many of them had been ill-treated. Similarly, the ad hoc visit to Armenia in April 2004 was prompted by reports concerning the treatment of persons detained in the course of or following demonstrations organised earlier that month in Yerevan by opposition parties. 7. Several of the visits focused on the situation of “immigration detainees”. This was the case, for example, of the ad hoc visit to Malta in January 2004, organised following the receipt of several critical reports during the second half of 2003. Malta had since 2001 experienced a sharp and unprecedented increase in the number of irregular migrants, who were systematically detained when caught. The CPT’s delegation examined the manner in which these persons were treated by custodial staff as well as their conditions of detention. Reference should also be made to the ad hoc visit to Switzerland in October 2003. The CPT’s delegation examined the measures taken in response to the recommendations concerning immigration detainees made by the Committee after its periodic visit in 2001, particular attention being given to the procedures and means of restraint applied in the context of forcible removals by air. The March 2004 ad hoc visit to the United Kingdom focused on persons detained pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001; this Act provides for the administrative detention (by Ministerial decision), for an indefinite period, of foreigners believed to pose a risk to national security and suspected of being international terrorists who, for legal or practical reasons, cannot be removed from the country. The treatment of such persons, who are considered as immigration detainees, had already been the subject of an ad hoc visit in February 2002. The CPT’s delegation interviewed each of the twelve persons being detained exclusively under the 2001 Act, six of whom had been deprived of their liberty since December 2001. Particular attention was paid to the impact of the conditions of detention on the mental and physical well-being of the detainees. 9 8. The main purpose of the ad hoc visit to Bulgaria in December 2003 was to review the situation of persons placed in homes for adults with mental disorders. The CPT has visited establishments of this kind in Bulgaria in the past, and the conditions observed were of deep concern to the Committee. The report on the December 2003 visit and the response of the Bulgarian authorities were published in June 2004. Replying to the CPT’s criticism of the very poor conditions observed at the home for men in the village of Pastra, the Bulgarian authorities highlight plans for the transfer of the residents to new facilities in Kachulka. The ad hoc visit to Romania in June 2004 focused on the situation of patients at Poiana Mare Psychiatric Hospital, an establishment already visited by the CPT in 1995 and 1999. The Committee had received alarming reports in the course of 2004, according to which a considerable number of patients had recently died at the hospital as a result of hypothermia and/or malnutrition. 9. The primary aims of the ad hoc visit to Turkey in September 2003 were to examine current treatment of persons in the custody of law enforcement agencies and assess the extent to which the safeguards recommended by the CPT in previous reports, and incorporated in recent legislative reforms, were being implemented in practice. The report on that visit and the Turkish authorities’ response were published in June 2004. The above-mentioned issues were further explored during the Committee’s periodic visit to Turkey in March 2004. The May 2004 ad hoc visit to Latvia was organised in order to review the measures taken by the national authorities to implement recommendations made by the CPT after its periodic visit in 2002. Particular attention was paid to the treatment of persons detained by the police and to conditions of detention in police and prison establishments. The regime and security measures applied to life-sentenced prisoners were also examined. Similarly, the main purpose of the CPT’s most recent ad hoc visit, to “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in July 2004, was to review measures taken following findings made by the Committee during previous visits. The delegation focused on the treatment of persons detained by the law enforcement agencies (and the related issue of accountability) and the situation in remand prisons.