The Ombudsman, Soledad Becerril, appeared before the Joint Committee for Relations with the Ombudsman on Tuesday to explain the oversight task carried out by the institution at Detention Centres for Foreign Nationals (CIE).
The main endeavour of the Office of the Ombudsman is to bring about an improvement in the facilities and buildings of the centres, and boost the care and services that the detainees are provided with, through a greater presence of NGOs and better information for the people who are admitted.
After indicating that only approximately 41% of the people admitted to the CIEs are expelled, the Ombudsman also pointed out that there are people in the CIEs who are in an irregular administrative situation and others who have come out of prison and who instead of carrying out their sentence are expelled.
“I have informed the Minister of the need to make these improvements and he told me that he was aware of the need for them and that he would do what he could to deal with them”, the Ombudsman said.
Aluche CIE
The Ombudsman also gave details of the visit made by staff from the institution to the CIE in Aluche (Madrid) on 26 and 27 October and went through some of the recommendations made to improve conditions for the detainees.
Soledad Becerril pointed out that on the day of the visit the installation of a mechanical opening system for the doors of the rooms was being completed and added that all the bedrooms have an en-suite toilet, in keeping with the criteria of the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Office reiterated the recommendation that all the foreign nationals who are going to be repatriated should undergo a medical examination within the 48 hours prior to leaving the CIE and for that report to be accompanied by a summary of the detainee’s medical history.
Of note also among the suggestions made by the Ombudsman after that visit is the need for all the detainees to have a systematic medical check-up who go into the temporary separation situation, both before and after leaving, and that the result be noted in the register book.
The Office has suggested, as well, that video-surveillance cameras should be installed in the temporary separation rooms as well as in the areas the detainees go through, which do not have them at the moment. A request has been made, furthermore, for information about international protection to be made available in more languages than those that are used now.
As Soledad Becerril explained, the institution has received 116 complaints about the CIE in Aluche and has passed on to the Attorney General’s Office the list of the 17 persons who, at the time of the visit, said that they were under age. It has also asked the Attorney General’s Office to report on the investigation that it is conducting as a result of the incidents that took place at the CIE on 18 October.
