E/CN.4/2006/16 page 16 restrict the economic and social rights (housing, education, health) of these communities and thus illustrate that the political primacy of security over the law brings about a decline in human rights. Such policies are first applied at the points of entry to a country (airports, ports, borders): widespread use of discriminatory measures, such as targeting people because of their ethnic, cultural or religious appearance, systematic and humiliating searches, refoulement, separate counters for nationals and foreign nationals, and excessively long waiting lines at counters for foreign nationals. In this regard, human rights organizations report, in particular, that waiting areas for asylum-seekers and persons who have been turned back have become “no-rights zones”, characterized inter alia by a lack of access to redress and defence, physical and verbal violence of a racist nature by law enforcement officers, cramped conditions and lack of privacy, a lack of even minimum conditions of hygiene, a lack of measures to protect women and children. Generally speaking, these are restricted areas which human rights organizations cannot access. It is clear from the increase in violent incidents caused by legally vague conditions of expulsion, in particular group expulsions by charter and commercial flights, that particular attention needs to be given to this kind of resurgence of racism. 40. Such trends have been reported in France, for example, by the National Commission on Security Practices, which, in its annual report for 2003,1 noted the existence of arrangements for enforced embarkation based on specific restraining techniques with a de facto humiliating aspect, such as placing restraints on people’s legs, transporting foreign nationals by plane in a horizontal position, the use of unprofessional methods of intervention and the systematic use of force. The Commission noted that in some cases these methods affected the physical and moral integrity of persons who had been turned back, two of whom died as a result of excessive use of restraints. The Commission also stressed that the systematic use of such methods, which are applied only to foreign nationals, is akin to institutional discrimination. 41. The National Commission on Security Practices noted that when it comes to escorting to the border or turning back persons who have not been admitted to French national territory around 20,000 people in total at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in 2002 - police officers are not given any technical training on the specific nature or duration of such operations. The Commission also recommended teaching and applying, as strictly as possible, technical and professional methods of intervention which can then be used by border police officers in order to ensure respect for the dignity and physical and mental integrity of persons who are escorted to the border or turned back. The Commission also suggested improving dialogue with all the persons, authorities and associations concerned and ensuring respect for national and international standards on security-related searches and handcuffing.2 In the Special Rapporteur’s view, the fact that such a commission was established and such a report published indicates that member States are now aware of the seriousness of the problem. 42. Treatment in waiting areas and the conditions of expulsion of refugees and asylum-seekers are also a matter of concern for Amnesty International, which expressed its disquiet on the occasion of World Refugee Day on 20 June 2005. To mark this date, the non-governmental organization published three reports on detention and practices relating to expulsion in the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, although it stressed that such practices are a reality in most parts of the world.3 43. In general terms, Amnesty International noted that conditions of detention often do not respect standards relating to fundamental human rights. People are detained in unsatisfactory