seeking international protection has been reported as inadequate and lacking basic conditions.55 Reception conditions for asylum-seekers should be improved, including in relation to reception centres, interpretation services and legal assistance.56 ISSUE 5 – Risks of Arbitrary Detention of Stateless Persons 35. Stateless persons face a heightened risk of arbitrary detention particularly where procedural safeguards to identify and determine statelessness and related barriers to removal are lacking. 57 Such arbitrary detention would be in violation of Article 9 of the ICCPR. Austria is bound by the EU Returns Directive,58 which requires particular attention to be paid to the situation of vulnerable persons, and the revised EU Returns Handbook also requires attention to be paid to the specific situation of stateless persons, ensuring that there is a reasonable prospect of removal prior to detaining or prolonging a person’s detention.59 Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Austria is also a party, establishes limits to the deprivation of liberty of individuals. 36. There are gaps in Austrian law and practice with regard to safeguards against arbitrary detention of stateless people. Statelessness is not considered juridically relevant in decisions to detain, and more than one proposed country of removal (or indeed none if the detained person cannot identify one) may be identified before detention. Since an amendment to the Immigration Police Act (‘Aliens Police Act’) entered into force in 2018, the purposes allowed go beyond Article 5(1)(f) ECHR, permitting coercive detention for up to four weeks if the person does not cooperate with their removal, and coercive detention may be imposed repeatedly without access to legal aid nor to an effective remedy.60 37. Detention should only be used as a measure of last resort, but OHCHR and NGOs have reported that less coercive measures are often not considered with due diligence and their use has diminished in recent years.61 Vulnerability assessments should be carried out as part of the proportionality test when ordering immigration detention, but this is in practice often limited to a police doctor establishing whether a person is (still) fit for detention. Statelessness is not considered by law, practice, or jurisprudence to be a relevant factor in this assessment. 38. Law and policy establish various procedural safeguards including a time limit for detention, legal aid, decisions in writing, periodic judicial review and remedies, but practical barriers to accessing these have been reported.62 55 Christoph Riedl, Wie Flüchtlingsquartiere sein sollten, 19 June 2020 at https://blog.diakonie.at/wie-fluechtlingsquartiere-sein-sollten. Asylum Information Database, Country Report: Austria 2019 Update, at https://www.asylumineurope.org/sites/default/files/reportdownload/aida_at_2019update.pdf; ECRE, Reforming Legal Assistance In Austria: An End To Independent Provision?, 2019, at https://www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Legal-Note-5.pdf. 57 ENS (2017) Protecting Stateless Persons from Arbitrary Detention: An Agenda for Change, https://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/attachments/resources/ENS_LockeInLimbo_Detention_Agenda_online.pd f. 58 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:348:0098:0107:en:PDF. 59 European Commission (2017) ANNEX to the COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION establishing a common "Return Handbook" to be used by Member States' competent authorities when carrying out return related tasks, https://ec.europa.eu/homeaffairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agendamigration/20170927_recommendation_on_establishing_a_common_return_handbook_annex_en.pdf. 60 Article 46(2)(a) Fremdenpolizeigesetz 2005, BGBl I No. 100/2005 as amended by BGBl I No. 56/2018 (DE), Unofficial English translation (amended version as of BGBl I No. 56/2018). 61 OHCHR, Report of mission to Austria focusing on the human rights of migrants, particularly in the context of return, 15-18 October 2018, para 47. 62 See: https://index.statelessness.eu/country/austria. 56 9