Author
Lawyers have access to detention centres. Family members have access during visiting hours. Access is dependent on the rules that apply in the detention centre (Hausordnung) and may vary significantly.[1] Regarding the access of NGOs, according to the experience of Amnesty International, a personal authorisation must be obtained in advance to visit the facilities. Usually, visitors from NGOs need to know and communicate the name of the person they want to visit. UNHCR would in theory have access to detention centres, but they do not conduct regular visits.[2]
The visiting hours represent a hurdle for the effective access of family members to detention centres. Many detention facilities allow visits on weekdays only. This is for example the case in the Regional Prison of Bern and the Regional Prison of Moutier according to their websites.[3]
Administrative detainees have the possibility to make calls using the phones that are placed in detention. If they have no financial means, the facility shall provide for phone cards. According to a judgement of the Federal Supreme Court, all detention facilities must provide for the possibility to access the Internet.[4]
As regards airport transit zones, third parties are usually not allowed to visit. Church representatives can access the centre on presentation of their accreditation if they announce their arrival and departure with the staff running the holding centre in the transit zone. IOM has access to the transit zones at airports.
Persons who apply for asylum at the airport and are confined in the transit area systematically get free legal representation like all other asylum applicants (see also Border procedure (border and transit zones)). The organisation mandated for the region West Switzerland (Caritas Suisse) has access to the transit zones and have a regular presence there for the relevant steps of the procedure.
[1] The visiting rights and the concrete modus is also taken up by the NCPT in its reports.
[2] Information provided by UNHCR, Office for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, 13 February 2023.
[3] Sicherheitsdirektion, Besucherinformationen, available in German here. Direction de la sécurité, Informations aux visiteurs, available in French here.
[4] Federal Supreme Court, Decision 2C_765/2022, 13 Ocotober 2022.