In Finland, 97 Denmark, 98 and Spain, 99 for example, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen can be approached. Support to victims of torture and traumatised persons Follow up to incidents The Victims’ Rights Directive (2012/29/EU) 101 provides for a comprehensive set of rights for victims of crime, which aim to guarantee that they receive appropriate information, protection and support. 102 Article 9 (1) of the directive requires Member States to provide victim support services. These include, among others, “information, advice, and support relevant to the rights of victims” and “emotional and, where available, psychological support”. Ensuring follow up to individual incidents with effective investigation is important to convey a zero-tolerance approach to ill-treatment. However, this does not appear to happen regularly. In Hungary, for example, the NGO MigSzol notes that reported instances of violence do not lead to investigations or, if they do, the investigations generally conclude that officials committed no violence.100 As the following example shows, incidents can also be effectively followed up with new policy measures. Responding Germany to excessive violence Article 25 (1) of the Reception Conditions Directive (2013/32/EU) 103 obliges Member States to “ensure that persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious acts of violence receive the necessary treatment for the damage caused by such acts, in particular access to appropriate medical and psychological treatment or care”. in In Germany, security men were accused of severely mistreating asylum applicants in North Rhine-Westphalia. Following the incident, the Ministry of the Interior together with non-governmental organisations took the following measures: General Comment No. 3 of the Committee against Torture stipulates that victims of torture have a right to full rehabilitation, which includes medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services. To fulfil this obligation, each State Party should adopt a long-term and integrated approach and ensure that specialised services for victims of torture or ill-treatment are available, appropriate and promptly accessible. 104 • A supra-regional coordination centre (überregionale Koordinationsstelle) was established to follow up and address specific allegations and to detect structural deficiencies; • a roundtable hosted by the Ministry of the Interior was made responsible for monitoring and addressing structural deficiencies; Victims of torture and traumatised persons require different forms of support. Depending on the case, this can include, among others, special accommodation arrangements, psychosocial counselling, specialised healthcare, legal support and information, and interpretation to be able to effectively access existing services. • mobile control groups were set up to check refugee accommodation facilities on a regular basis, and standards for security companies guarding reception facilities were improved. Sources: DW, German police raid security firm accused of abusing asylum seekers; German Institute for Human Rights, ‘Entwicklung der Menschenrechtssituation in Deutschland Januar 2015 – Juni 2016’, p. 72; Germany, Response of the North Rhine-Westphalian government Facilities Accommodation needs may be covered either by placing the asylum applicant in a specialised care facility or by making other arrangements within existing reception centres. For example, specialised care facilities can be provided by the state in Austria 105 or Germany. 106 12