NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM AGAINST TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT 2019 considering it a practice that opposed the child's best interest and was not justified even as an ultimate measure under article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, in his general remarks, the Ombudsman stressed the risk of normalizing an exceptional measure, namely the detention of asylum applicants in accordance with Directive 2013/33/EU, thus testing the limits of the application of the proportionality principle in the limitations of personal freedom (article 5 of the Greek constitution, article 5 ECHR). 4.b. Special issues that emerged in 2019 38 The Mechanism's main findings include persistent problems with effective medical services (the pre-removal center of Moria being the worst case) and poor maintenance of infrastructure (the pre-removal center of Xanthi being the worst 39 case). These issues reaffirm the relevance the Ombudsman's past recommendation 8 about the key importance of an uninterrupted funding process regarding preremoval detention centers. 4.c. Remarks on inspected pre-removal centers 4.c.1. Moria Pre-removal Detention Center The detention center had a capacity of 210 people (112 in Wing A and 98 in wing B). In wing A there were eight containers (Isobox type) that were used as detention areas and seven additional in wing B, placed in a row on both sides of a small pathway. The space between them was used as a yard area. Out-of-cell time was 1,5 hour in the morning and 1,5 hour in the evening. Detainees spent a disproportionally long part of their day (21 hours) locked in the containers. There seemed no obvious reason for such a restriction given the available police force (40 police officers) and the lack of individual risk assessment files and records with a history of violence. Each container had 14 bunk beds, two toilets and two showers, air conditioning system and hot water. Each wing had a leisure area and a praying area. Due to the small number of detainees, there was an extra space in each wing for visiting hours. 38 Those findings are confirmed by other Ombudsman inspection teams in its competence as the external monitoring mechanism for forced returns (L. 3907/2011) 39 Greek Ombudsman, Migration flows and refugee protection – administrative challenges and human rights - Special Report 2017, p.87-91 48