prerequisites leading to violation of the rights of the persons accommodated in such facilities. In the structure of the Ombudsman's institution was established Directorate "National Preventive Mechanism and fundamental rights and freedoms". It employs seven experts - they are a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, a psychologist, a physician (MD) and experts in the field of public administration. By amendments to the Law on Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria (SG, issue 23 of 2013) on the Ombudsman arose obligation to monitor coercive administrative measures imposed on foreigners, namely: 1. compulsory escort to the borders of the Republic of Bulgaria; 2. expulsion. This legislative change was dictated by the requirements of Directive 2008/115 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16th December 2008 concerning the common standards and procedures applicable in the Member States for returning the illegally staying third-country nationals. According to Art. 8, para 6 of the Directive "the Member States shall provide for an effective forced returns monitoring system". In connection with these obligations on 8th April 2014 an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria for cooperation in carrying out the monitoring of forced returns of illegally staying thirdcountry nationals. At present, however, the administration of the Ombudsman does not efficiently monitor the forced returns. The reasons for this concern are related to the resources. Reducing the institution's budget for 2014 did not allow the Ombudsman to develop this important activity on monitoring the forced returns. ІІІ. INTERACTION OF THE NPM WITH INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL AUTHORITIES. PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES In 2014 cooperation and good communication between the Bulgarian NPM and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture continued. Besides formal correspondence, a video conference meeting with members of the Subcommittee was held as well, during which were discussed key issues in the work of the NPM, the need for broader financial independence and the opportunities for increasing the administrative capacity of the mechanism, as well as the future cooperation between the two institutions. The main findings and conclusions in the annual reports of the Ombudsman as NPM were discussed, the interaction with the responsible national institutions and the nongovernmental sector, and the actions of the Subcommittee to the Bulgarian authorities with a view to implementation of the recommendations made by the NPM. At the end of May 2014, the Ombudsman as NPM joined the Network of the national preventive mechanisms in South-East Europe. This happened at a meeting held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, during which the participants in the network - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, discussed the way to prepare annual reports of the NPM, they exchanged their experiences and good practices that could provide better and more efficient work in executing the mandate of the NPM. The NPM's experts participated in the international conferences on topics directly related to the activity and operation of the mechanism - "Detention of immigrants in Europe: Establishing common problems and developing minimum standards", "Strengthening the effective implementation and follow-up of recommendations given by the authorities dealing with the prevention of torture in the EU", "Establishment of effective domestic remedies in respect of the conditions in 8