transparency of the Border Guard activities but also impede the disclosure and examination of violations of the rights of deported foreign citizens, and the imposition of sanctions on those who commit them. The Commissioner requested the Minister of the Interior and Administration to amend the regulations on the participation of observers in deportation operations, to require the Border Guard to fully document the deportations of persons from vulnerable groups, and to require the Commander-inChief of the Border Guard to regularly publish reports on the deportations. In reply, the Minister informed27 that the Border Guard had looked for various possibilities of funding the participation of representatives of non-governmental organisations in deportation operations. In 2018, the possibility was found of financing the participation of NGO representatives in deportation operations with the use of international funds under the FAMI project (the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund). However, despite the opportunities offered by the Border Guard to finance the participation of NGO representatives in deportation operations, only six operations were monitored in 2018-2019. In the Ministry’s opinion, there is no need to modify the regulations on the participation of observers (including the Commissioner for Human Rights) in deportation operations, as the Commissioner's representatives may monitor such activities under the Act on the Commissioner for Human Rights. As regards access to the documentation from the monitoring of deportation operations, the Minister informed that the monitoring reports drawn up on deportation operations are classified as non-archived documents and are subsequently destroyed. In another general intervention letter sent to the Minister28, the Commissioner emphasized that, in the absence of relevant implementing regulations on the participation of the CHR representatives in the monitoring of deportations, the Commissioner’s possibility to perform the role of the national preventive mechanism in the field of deportations has in practice been excluded. The current situation contradicts Article 20 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), according to which the state authorities are required to ensure that the national preventive mechanism can actually fulfil its mandate. What is of importance, the OPCAT, as a ratified international agreement, according to Article 91(1) of the Constitution forms a part of the national legislative system. The Commissioner also pointed out that the principles regarding the monitoring of deportations by representatives of non-governmental organisations have been laid down in the Regulation of the Minister of the Interior on the presence of representatives of non-governmental organisations in the course of activities linked with bringing an alien to the border or to the airport or sea port of the country to which he/she is being brought. In the Commissioner's opinion, a similar solution should be adopted in the context of the Commissioner's participation in organised return operations. In view of the above, the Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Minister of the Interior and Administration to take legislative action in order to ensure that 27 Letter of 7 May 2020. 28 General intervention letter of the CHR to the Minister of the Interior and Administration of 24 June 2020. 25