A/HRC/4/40/Add.3 page 14 58. A number of postgraduate programmes have been organized to upgrade judges in juvenile law and the application of juvenile justice. Under Act No. 228, the national police service is obliged to establish plans and programmes to prevent juvenile violence. 59. Detained minors must be sent to special custodial facilities where they are to await trial and, if sentenced to custodial penalties, they must serve their sentences in these same facilities. Administrative detention of immigrants and asylum-seekers 60. In addition to being a destination country for immigrants, Nicaragua is nowadays also a transit country for migrants hoping to gain entry to the United States of America. The country’s migration law dates to 1993 and has not been updated. In 1996 the Trafficking in Illegal Migrants Act was promulgated. 61. The delegation visited the custodial centre for aliens and immigrants set up in the premises of the Office of Migration and Alien Affairs. This can accommodate 50 persons. During its visit to the centre, members of the delegation met some 20 inmates. Most of these belonged to a group of Cuban citizens proceeding from Costa Rica with the intention of crossing into the United States of America and seeking political asylum in that country. There were also Chinese nationals who had landed on the Nicaraguan coast and persons from South American countries. 62. Nicaraguan legislation does not have any system for the administrative detention of would-be immigrants. Aliens are held simply while their identity and legal status in the country is verified or while waiting for deportation orders to be carried out. Most migrants illegally entering the country are returned to their countries of origin. Persons interviewed raised concerns, however, about the Costa Rican authorities, who often refuse readmission to aliens who have entered Nicaragua from the territory of Costa Rica. 63. Pursuant to the law, the Office of Migration and Alien Affairs must organize hearings to determine the status of aliens found to be in an irregular situation. These hearings take place within 24 hours of the arrest of the alien concerned. The hearings may result in the issuance of a deportation order. If it is impossible to enforce such an order, the alien is granted temporary permission to remain in the country. It must be borne in mind that many countries outside the American continent have no consular representation in Nicaragua and that most of its international air connections pass through Costa Rica, Mexico or the United States of America. Legislation on narcotics and psychotropic substances 64. In 1999, the Nicaraguan National Assembly passed into law Act No. 285, amending Act No. 177, the Narcotics, Psychotropic Drugs and Other Controlled Substances Act. Article 51 of Act No. 285 stipulates that persons committing the offence of trafficking in drugs and psychotropic and other controlled substances within the country shall be punished with terms of imprisonment ranging between 5 and 20 years and fines of between 1 million and 5 million cordobas (approximately 61,000-303,000 United States dollars). International drug trafficking carries a penalty of imprisonment between 20 and 30 years and fines ranging from 2 million to 9 million cordobas (Act No. 285, art. 52). Mere possession of drugs, in quantities