Special report on return of third country nationals

Description

The Greek Ombudsman, Andreas Pottakis, publicized on September 29, 2017, his special report titled "Return of third country nationals - 2016". In his third annual report on the issue the Ombudsman notes that the number of forced returns operations has decreased, in 2016, whereas the number of detainees has increased. The Ombudsman also notes the lack of adequate and timely information provided to third country nationals regarding the removal operation as well as the wrongful use of handcuffs as a standard procedure without individual assessment of its necessity. At a European level, the Ombudsman observes the problems in managing mixed flows of both migrants and asylum seekers along the south east borders of the EU and calls for the strengthening of an external control mechanism to monitor the return operations.