raising the level of protection of fundamental rights that every operation of forced return inevitably brings into play: personal security, the right not to be returned to a country where he/she might be at risk of death penalty, torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment, but also personal dignity, health, the right to understand or be protected in situations of personal vulnerability. The principle holds that “return cannot be carried out at all cost”, an unquestionable limit to the right of States to legitimately decide about the stay of foreign citizens in their territory. We wish to thank the colleagues from other European countries who carried out monitoring activities in their respective countries and who kindly and patiently agreed to answer the submitted questionnaire that is the backbone of this work; we also wish to thank the Board and the National Guarantor’s Office for the support given to this research and to the project in general; we also thank the pool of experts of the forced return operations of the National Guarantor, in particular Antonio Marchesi for revising the text. Finally, we thank Elena Adamoli of the Organisational Unit Migrants and deprivation of liberty of the National Guarantor for the careful work of legal review. We hope this research will prove useful. Massimiliano Bagaglini Project manager