In 2018, Greece was the only country in the European Union to be among the top 5 countries in the world to accommodate the largest number of asylum seekers, both in absolute terms and in proportion to its population. 25 During the course of the year, The Greek Ombudsman continued to play a particularly active role as a national external monitoring mechanism in the return and readmission procedures of the Greek State and to work, in cooperation with European and international bodies, for a more comprehensive and effective system for the implementation of external monitoring. At the same time, it intervened in the cases of third-country nationals who, during pre-removal checks, were in need of protection, just as it intervened in reporting cases of legally questionable administrative detention. 26 The monitoring, carried out by The Greek Ombudsman team, has repeatedly revealed the following main problems: - inadequate means of transport by land (unusable toilets, vehicles in conditions that are totally inappropriate for the transport of people, lack of air conditioning, absence of meals provided or water); - the unsuitability of the detention cells present in the bus boarding areas (there is not enough space to accommodate the often high number of returnees and people are often forced to sleep on the ground, when detention occurs overnight) ; - absence of medical information and documentation on the health conditions of the returnees before boarding and impossibility of accessing the administrative file of the returnee; - lack of interpreters to support the escorts during operations in all phases; - absence of advance notice to the returnees of the beginning of operations of forced transfer to their country of origin. In response to the questionnaire submitted, the team of The Greek Ombudsman responsible for monitoring forced returns reported some methods used to carry out the monitoring of forced return operations, and in particular: - - - The authorities responsible for carrying out return operations communicate to The Greek Ombudsman at the beginning of the year the annual scheduling of the transfer missions of returnees to third countries by air. Subsequently, approximately 1 month in advance, confirmation of each of the indicated operations is given, through communications that take place via email to a dedicated email address. Removals by sea or by land are instead announced a few days in advance (3 or 4 days). Greek police generally report all details of the operation to the Ombudsman’s monitoring team. Returnees are notified of their transfer to their country of origin on the day of the operation. This practice of the Greek police has been strongly criticized by the Ombudsman as it represents an evident violation of the right of returnees to adequately prepare their return to their country of origin, having the time and the opportunity to notify friends and family of their repatriation. The Greek Ombudsman reports that the police charged with carrying out the transfers of returnees in the various phases of the operation systematically use coercive measures Return of third country nationals - Special report 2018 of The Greek Ombudsman https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php/Asylum_quarterly_report#Main_trends_in_the_numbers_of_asylum_applicants. 26 Annual Report 2018 – p. 37 – The Greek Ombudsman. 25