A/58/275 5. Interception/detention/deportation/repatriation 34. The Special Rapporteur devoted her main report to the fifty-ninth session of the Commission to the issue of administrative detention of migrants, as she is concerned about the vulnerability of migrants to deprivation of liberty and the violations they experience while in detention centres. There is in fact a tendency to criminalize infringements of immigration regulations and to punish them severely, while a great number of countries resort to administrative detention of irregular migrants pending deportation. 35. The Special Rapporteur regrets that deprivation of liberty is resorted to without due regard for the individual history of the persons in question. Often, victims of trafficking, including minors, are detained for infractions committed as a result of their situation as victims. Often, children and other vulnerable groups are detained in conditions that are detrimental to their physical and mental health, owing to the lack of facilities which ensure respect for their human rights. There is a tendency to allow immigration officials to decide whether to detain certain migrants and the legal grounds for the administrative detention of migrants are often too broad. 36. This situation is often encouraged by the absence of automatic mechanisms for judicial or administrative review. Moreover, the Special Rapporteur has observed that other procedural safeguards, such as access to interpreters and lawyers, the right to be informed of the grounds for detention, the right to have recourse to appeal mechanisms and the right to have consular or embassy representatives informed of the detention, are basic rights that are often denied to migrants. Legislation and practice allow administrative detention to be very lengthy or, at times, indefinite, even though the facilities built or used for this purpose are not equipped for longterm detention. 37. Infractions of immigration laws and regulations are often considered criminal offences under national legislation. With respect to unaccompanied minors, the Special Rapporteur has stressed that the detention of children should be permitted only as a measure of last resort, only when it is in the best interest of the child, and only for the shortest appropriate period of time and in conditions that ensure the realization of the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Special Rapporteur also stresses the need to avoid the prosecution, detention and punishment of victims of trafficking for illegal entry or residence in the country or for the activities they were involved in as a consequence of their situation as trafficked persons. She further recommends that procedural safeguards and guarantees established by international human rights law and national law in criminal proceedings be applied to any form of detention. 38. The Special Rapporteur attributes the increase in the number of administrative detentions to the growing number of irregular migrants and the unilateral restrictive measures often adopted by States to stop or discourage these irregular flows. She suggests that measures to tackle the causes of irregular migration flows would be the most efficient way of addressing the problems relating to the administrative detention of migrants. Moreover, tackling these flows would help to ensure the integrity of national security while also helping to protect migrants’ human rights. 14