OPINIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FRENCH CGLPL
disconnection of the listening system (lawyers, the Contrôleur général
etc.) are set out in the procedures.
13/ The more restrictive telephone access is in practice, the greater
the temptation for prisoners to resort to mobile phones, the existence
of which is recognised in prisons, despite their being prohibited. As
jamming devices are ineffective in most cases, consideration must
be given to the conditions in which these mobile devices could be
used, provided that legitimate security and control measures could
be found to apply.
Foreigners held in detention or in waiting areas
14/ The equipment in ordinary detention facilities for illegal
immigrants, often located in police stations, does not include a
telephone, contrary to paragraph 3 of article R. 553-6 of the Code for
Entry and Residence of Foreigners and Right of Asylum. The solution
of authorising detainees to use a service phone in the presence of
police officers cannot be deemed as satisfactory in regard to the right
to respect for private and family life.
15/ Detention centres and waiting areas include - in most cases - the
necessary telephone equipment (in accordance with the respective
provisions of articles L. 551-2, L. 221-4 and R. 553-3 of the Code for
Entry and Residence of Foreigners and Right of Asylum). However,
the operating instructions are poorly distributed and, generally,
only available in French. In particular, the indications (notably given
by representatives of the French agency in charge of migration
and welcoming foreign people, OFII) for buying cards, payment
for communications, and dialling international numbers should be
provided in the form of written instructions in several languages and
be issued on arrival at the centre or the waiting area, even when the
expected duration of stay is short.
16/ The confidentiality of conversations should be generally improved,
as there is no guarantee of sound insulation for most telephones.
17/ All mobile phone devices comprising a photographic device are
confiscated on arrival at a detention centre or waiting area, on the
grounds that photography could infringe upon the image rights of
other persons detained in the facility. Insofar as a large number of
devices are nowadays thus equipped, in practice this rule leads to
the confiscation of most telephones and complicates the access to
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