4– Immigration detention and Monitoring visits in Greece The research visit to Greece took place from 25-28 September 2018. The research team accompanied the NPM on monitoring visits to two immigration detention facilities in the Athens area. Main activities: i) Meetings with officials in the Greek NPM, which sits under the Greek Ombudsman, and a subsequent meeting with the Greek Ombudsman himself to discuss findings and ongoing collaboration. ii) Accompanied a monitoring visit to the special holding facility of the Police Directorate of the Athens Airport, carried out by three NPM staff. iii) Accompanied a monitoring visit to Petrou Ralli immigration removal centre, carried out by two NPM staff. iv) Held a training event with the Greek NPM. Our agreed role was to observe the NPM’s work; in order to avoid confusion, we limited our interactions with detainees and avoided asking them, facility managers or staff direct questions. Instead, we referred questions to the NPM. The information below about the facilities is based almost entirely on the NPM’s inquiries. 18