Abstract Deportations can threaten the fundamental rights of those being forcibly removed, especially during their execution. On this account, Article 8(6) of the EU Return Directive requires Member States to set up effective systems to monitor deportations. This provision mandates monitors to act as third-party witnesses to observe that deportation operations respect human rights, without interfering with procedures. Through interviews with monitors, this article explores their ambivalent positioning as guardians of rights and facilitators of ‘more humane’ and efficient operations in the context of air deportations. Findings show that monitors often face tensions between their human rights oversight role and their implication in a process that is inhumane. While they play a crucial role in oversight—enhancing visibility, producing authoritative knowledge, contributing to the disruption of official narratives, and documenting to enable changes—their limited powers make them part of a system that can lead, in certain circumstances, to them facilitating deportations in practice. The article interrogates such ambivalence of monitoring, finally briefly noting the need for reconsidering mandates and intervention powers of monitors, as to empower deportees and further distance monitoring from state enforcement practices.
Antonella Patteri (2026) studied this question.