Improving Police Detention Facilities for Aliens

Abstract

Foreigners staying illegally in our country are dealt with by the aliens’ police. In order to ensure that the foreigner does not evade prosecution, the authority usually uses coercive measures involving the permanent deprivation of personal liberty, i.e. detention. In principle, detention must be carried out in a place of detention specifically designed for this purpose, known as a “guarded accommodation”. The length of detention can sometimes be up to 12 months.
The places of detention must comply with the relevant provisions of alien’s legislation and professional standards of detention security. The capacity of police guarded accommodation is low. With the increase in illegal migration and the dramatic rise in the number of persons detained in the course of aliens’ proceedings, the detention service has faced an immediate and intractable problem, with serious difficulties in ensuring conditions of detention that meet the legal requirements. The Police have made serious efforts to increase the number of places of detention, the reception capacity and to ensure the most humane accommodation for the so-called vulnerable groups (women, families, underage children) that have emerged in the meantime. The majority of the existing facilities have been modernised with EU funding, making them suitable for the safe and civilised accommodation of detainees and for the detention of groups requiring special accommodation, with the minimum of harm. In addition to the conversion of the facilities, a special purpose facility was designed, but its construction was later cancelled due to a management decision. The modernisation of the detention system needed the definition of professional requirements by the experts involved in its implementation and national management, the continuous monitoring of design and construction work and the impact of the changes from the start of the occupation.