4. The visit of the conditions of execution of forced returns is being conducted by the Contrôleur général of places of deprivation of liberty The Law no. 2007-1545 dated 30 October 2007, instituting a Contrôleur général of places of deprivation of liberty, specifies in its first Article, amended in 2014, that “the Contrôleur général of places of deprivation of liberty is [...] in charge [...] of monitoring the conditions in which persons deprived of liberty are dealt with and transferred, in order to ensure that their fundamental rights are respected. For the same purpose, he controls the exercise by the administration of deportation measures against foreign nationals up until the hand-over to the recipient State authorities.” This latest assignment, which results from a legislative amendment dated 26 May 2014, is now taken care of by the CGLPL. This new task was subject to a cooperation protocol on the oversight of forced returns, concluded on 5 March 2015 between the Contrôleur général of places of deprivation of liberty, the Director General of the French national police force and the Director General for foreign nationals in France. According to the terms of this protocol, the CGLPL controls the forced returns under escorts and not the voluntary departures of foreign nationals. His intervention may involve any mode of transport (aircraft, ship, vehicle). The CGLPL has direct and systematic access to information on the programming of forced returns, and has full freedom of accessing ports, airports and the modes of transport used to carry out the escort operation till the foreign national is handed over to the authorities of the destination State. He has full freedom over making the choice, the preparation and the execution of his oversights. However, organising the oversight of forced returns is particularly complex due to the extreme variability in predictions until the last moment, the diversity in the aerial means used and the large number of staff required. In fact, while a team of two people is capable of carrying out an entire escort operation organised on a State aircraft (an aircraft with eighteen seats would allow escorting six people, and another with sixty-four seats would allow escorting twenty people), two teams are necessary when the person has to be escorted on a commercial flight, since the team that controls the flight phase and the phase of handing over the person to the authorities of the destination State must board with the public and, therefore, cannot simultaneously be present in the police offices. Ever since this oversight procedure was implemented, the CGLPL has carried out seven missions. They include forced returns to Albania, Algeria, Cameroon and Georgia, as well as one readmission in Italy. All of the aerial modes of transport used by the central administration of the French national police force (DGPN) have been visited. This sample is still too limited for the data obtained at this stage to be considered representative. A few general themes are still apparent. Forced returns are executed by police forces that are trained and dedicated to this task, such that the treatment of the escorted people is correctly understood. During this period, the adapting of means of restraint appears to be the most desirable point for improvement. The weaknesses of the procedure are mostly in the earlier phases, in the information given to the escorted people and to their families, and in the later phases in the relationship with the authorities of the destination States. 33