2. Foreign nationals restricted in freedom Foreign co-operation Based on co-operation with our foreign counterparts, we have access to specialised training and workshops in the area of forced returns. The above take place within the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund under the name Forced Return Monitoring II, co-ordinated by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development. The long-term objective of the project is to help the Member States create a functioning system of forced return monitoring. Measures taken to achieve this goal include improving qualifications of the forced return monitors, sharing of experience and comparison of practices in various EU Member States. Thanks to the project, we took part in several-day seminars in 2017 dealing with the rules and tactics of police work, principles of using force and coercive meansures and formulation of recommendations. We also contributed to the creation of a training publication for future forced return monitors and to the preparation of new overview materials regarding the system of monitoring forced returns in the individual Member States of the EU. Two employees also underwent intensive training to obtain a teaching qualification. Within strengthened co-operation, the Public Defender of Rights nominated two lawyers to a pool of forced-return monitors established by the Frontex agency. Since 2017, our specialists have been monitoring return operations on request of other Member States of the European Union. On request of Germany and France, we thus provided these countries with assistance in mo­nitoring forced-returns to Serbia, Montenegro, the FYR of Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo in 2017. Two meetings on forced returns A two-day seminar for the Foreigner Police, which we organised in co-operation with the UNHCR, served to communicate the findings obtained in forced returns monitoring. A Frontex officer made presentations on coercive measures and on activities of the agency in the area of return operations. Further, we organised a round table meeting involving all entities participating in forced return operations (the Police, the Prison Service, the Refugee Facilities Administration, and the Ministry of the Interior). The topic was organisation of return operations, including exchanging and sharing information among the individual entities involved in the exercise of administrative and criminal expulsion, preparation of persons to be expelled for their return, treatment of foreign nationals during the return operation and, last but not least, the presence of employees of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights in the escort vehicle. While the meeting did contribute to clarification of some problematic aspects, certain issues still remain disputed. 17