2. Foreign nationals restricted in freedom Monitoring in 2018 ―― 53 court and administrative expulsions ―― 1 transfer under the Dublin Regulation Analysis of decisions ―― 7397 decisions on expulsion, including decisions on appeals ―― 819 decisions on detention, including decisions on continued detention In 2018, the Office of the Public Defender of Rights continued to implement the project of the national programme under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. The project is titled Support for the Effective Monitoring of Forced Returns, Reg. No. AMIF/8/02 and enables us to set ourselves the goal of monitoring a total of 120 return operations over the course of three years. Success of our recommendations ―― Foreign nationals placed in facilities for detention of foreigners received access to computers with applications for online communication. The Refugee Facilities Administration also expanded the range of accessible Internet domains. This enables the foreigners to stay in regular contact with their close ones and arrange matters associated with their departure from the Czech Republic. ―― We have repeatedly witnessed situations where the foreigners being deported received no food and drink from early morning’s breakfast to late afternoon. Based on our recommendation, the Prison Service started distributing food packages. ―― We have found a lack of co-ordinated practice in conducting body searches of the foreigners placed in remand prisons prior their deportation. There was a lack of clarity as to who should conduct the search – an employee of the Prison Service or an escorting police officer. Based on our recommendation, a meeting was held between representatives of both institutions to agree on a common practice in order to minimise the interference with the privacy of the searched persons. In future, only one search will be conducted (as opposed to two body searches under the current practice) by an employee of the Prison Service in the presence of the escorting police officers. We have also successfully recommended that the search adhere to CPT standards, i.e. by enabling the person to remove clothing above the waist and get dressed before removing further clothing below the waist. ―― We encountered a problem during an examination by a physician. After an examination of a foreigner who was to be deported by air, the physician did not issue any certificate of medical fitness, even though the person had health problems. The Healthcare Facility of the Ministry of the Interior then adopted suitable remedial measures based on our recommendation. ―― We have found a case where a foreigner was not allowed to access legal advice while being placed in a strict-regime unit of a facility for detention of foreigners. The Directorate of the Immigration Police had originally referred to Section 144 (4) of the Foreigners’ Residence Act and claimed that a meeting with a lawyer would have had to be monitored by police officers. The aforementioned provision enables such an interpretation, but this is hardly in line with the lawmaker’s intention, and comparison with other legal provisions on restriction of personal freedom as well as the case law of the Constitutional Court indicate that meetings with legal counsel must always take place in private, without the presence of third parties. The police have accepted this interpretation, but the aforementioned provision should be amended to remove ambiguities. 13