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custodial staff in places of deprivation of liberty. The Committee recommends that the
State party provide more stringent instructions to law enforcement personnel
authorized to use electric-discharge weapons and to strictly monitor and supervise
their use through mandatory reporting and reviews.
Non-refoulement and mandatory immigration detention
18.
While welcoming the information provided by the State party on the comprehensive
system put in place to assist asylum seekers, the Committee is concerned at bills introduced
into Parliament that would reduce some of the existing statutory standards for the protection
of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. It is particularly concerned at the
Immigration Amendment Act 2013, which, inter alia, allows the detention of “mass arrival
groups” of asylum seekers for up to six months and at policies and practices currently
applied to persons who arrive in the State party through irregular channels (arts. 2, 3, 11
and 16).
The State party should adopt the measures necessary:
(a)
To ensure full compliance with its obligations under article 3 of the
Convention in respect of non-refoulement;
(b)
To ensure that detention should be applied only as a measure of last
resort, when determined to be strictly necessary, in a manner proportionate to each
individual case and for as short a period as possible;
(c)
To establish, in case it is necessary and proportionate that a person
should be detained, statutory time limits for detention and access to an effective
judicial remedy to review the necessity of the detention;
(d)
To ensure that stateless persons whose asylum claims have been refused
and refugees with adverse security or character assessments are not held in detention
indefinitely, including by resorting to non-custodial measures and alternatives to
closed immigration detention;
(e)
To identify as early as possible all victims of torture among asylum
seekers and other persons in need of international protection and provide them with
priority access to the refugee determination procedure and to treatment for urgent
conditions;
(f)
To provide a thorough medical and psychological examination and
report, considering the procedures set out in the Manual on Effective Investigation
and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol), by adequately trained independent health experts,
with the support of professional interpreters, when signs of torture or trauma have
been detected during personal interviews and, on that basis, provide access to
immediate rehabilitation services;
(g)
To provide regular training on the procedures established in the Istanbul
Protocol to asylum officers and health experts participating in the asylum
determination procedure, including training on detecting psychological traces of
torture and on gender-sensitive approaches.
Redress, including compensation and rehabilitation, for victims of torture
19.
While welcoming the commitment of the State party to provide compensation to
victims of historic claims of abuse, the Committee is concerned at the fact that victims have
not been awarded with full redress, including compensation and rehabilitation, as
prescribed by general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of article 14 by States
7