A/HRC/26/35/Add.1 children are routinely kept in the deportation centre and he was told that approximately 10 women with children had been removed from the centre the day preceding his visit. B. Detention conditions 60. While welcoming efforts undertaken by the authorities to ensure decent conditions for the migrants in the deportation centre, the Special Rapporteur found the centre to be overcrowded and unsanitary. The migrants lacked sheets, a change of clothes, soap and other hygienic products. Several migrants were sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the corridors. 61. The Special Rapporteur heard reports of severe overcrowding in recent months and weeks, with migrants sleeping 2–3 persons in each bed or on the floor, but at the time of his visit, the situation in the deportation centre seemed to have improved somewhat. Some of the detained women had been moved to a different ward only a few hours prior to his visit, most likely in order to reduce overcrowding. 62. Several of the migrants the Special Rapporteur met reported different health conditions, both physical and mental, but they had not had adequate medical attention. One housemaid had been beaten and burned by her employer before running away. Another had injured her leg in an accident. One ran away after an attempted rape. Access to a doctor was difficult, with no proper treatment given. The detainees reported that the only medication given was aspirin, regardless of their illness. The Special Rapporteur heard stories of pregnant women in detention not receiving prenatal care, including one who had miscarried inside the deportation centre. It was also reported to the Special Rapporteur that mentally ill persons had been kept in the deportation centre, with no adequate treatment. 63. Some migrants who had been both in the central prison and the deportation centre, stated that the deportation centre had the worst detention conditions, a remark that fits with an unfortunate pattern of treating migrants with little respect for their dignity. C. Procedural safeguards 64. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that detainees have limited ability to contact their families, limited access to legal assistance or consular services and virtually no professional interpretation services. Access to a phone was not guaranteed for those who did not have money to pay for the pay phone and mobile phones were confiscated. The detainees therefore had difficult access to the outside world and little knowledge about complaint mechanisms and how to challenge their detention. 65. The detainees reported that there was no way for them to make complaints about their detention or the conditions in detention. Some of them had spent several months in the deportation centre and lacked information about their situation, not knowing why they were there or what would happen to them. In general, the detainees the Special Rapporteur met had little or no information in a language they could understand about the reasons for their detention or its duration and little or no consular access or means of challenging their detention and/or deportation. 66. The Special Rapporteur notes as positive the visits to the deportation centre by the National Human Rights Committee and the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Interior. However, he believes it is important for Qatar to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and establish an independent national preventive mechanism tasked with undertaking regular unannounced visits to all places of deprivation of liberty in Qatar. 14