AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA ON THE READMISSION OF PERSONS, WHO DO NOT FULFILL CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY OR RESIDENCE IN THE TERRITORY OF THE OTHER STATE

The Government of the Republic of Latvia and the Government of Georgia (hereinafter referred to as the Contracting Parties),

proceeding from the desire to further improve and advance the relations bet­ween the Contracting Parties,

being aware of need to mutually facilitate the readmission and transportation of persons illegally entering and staying in the territories of their respective states,

have agreed as follows:

Article 1
Use of Terms

In this Agreement the following terms shall have the following meaning:

(1) The Requesting Party is the Contracting Party which requests readmission or transit of persons under the provided conditions of this Agreement;

(2) The Requested Party is the Contracting Party which receives request of readmission or transit of persons under the provided conditions of this Agreement;

(3) The readmission request is the demand by which the Requesting Party appeals to the Requested Party to readmit a person to its territory;

(4) The transit request is the demand by which the Requesting Party appeals to the Requested Party to permit the transit of a person to be readmitted through its territory;

(5) The reply to the request is the notice by which the Requested Party replies to the request of readmission or transit;

(6) A visa is a valid permission issued by the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties, for one or more entries, granting a person entrance and stay in the territory of the State of the Contracting Parties for a period of time in accordance with the legislation of the State of the Contracting Parties, except transit visa;

(7) A residence permit is a valid permission issued by the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties granting a person residence in the country. The residence permit does not mean a visa or a possibility to stay in the territory of the States of the Contracting Parties during the processing of an application for asylum or residence permit or during an expulsion procedure;

(8) Third country national – a person who is a national of neither of the Contracting Parties.

Article 2
Readmission of the Nationals of the Contracting Parties

(1) The Contracting Parties shall, with­out any particular formalities apart from those stipulated herein, upon readmission request readmit the persons, who do not or no longer fulfill the conditions for entry to or staying in the territory of the State of the Requesting Party, provided that it is ascertained or presumed on good grounds that the person is a national of the Requested Party.

(2) The provisions of section one of this Article shall be applied also in the case of a person who has been deprived nationality of the Contracting Party or has renounced the nationality of the Requested Party after he or she had entered the territory of the State of the Requesting Party without having obtained the nationality of any other State or at least an assurance of naturalization from the Requesting Party.

(3) Upon the receipt of an affirmative reply to the readmission request, the Diplomatic or Consular mission of the Requested Party shall issue travel document, whose expiry period should be no less than thirty (30) days, for the person to be readmitted, who has no valid travel documents. The travel documents shall be issued immediately, but no later than within three (3) working days.

(4) The Requesting Party shall readmit such person again if it is ascertained within thirty (30) days from readmission that the person concerned did not have the nationality of the Requested Party when he or she left the territory of the State of the Requested Contracting Party.

Article 3
Readmission of Third Country Nationals

(1) Each Contracting Party, at the request of the other Contracting Party shall readmit persons who are third country nationals, if they entered the territory of the Requesting Party illegally provided it is ascertained that the person concerned arrived directly from the territory of the Requested Party.

(2) The provisions of section one of this Article shall not apply if the third country national has been granted a visa or residence permit by the other Contracting Party after his entry to the territory of its State.

(3) The Contracting Parties shall, upon readmission request of the other Contracting Party, readmit a third country national who do not or no longer fulfill the conditions for entry to or staying in the territory of the State of the Requesting Party and who possesses a valid residence permit, a valid visa, except transit visa, or a valid travel document, issued by the Requested Party. In cases when both Contracting Parties have issued a residence permit or a visa to a third country national, the readmission obligation lies with that Party which has issued the residence permit or the visa containing the latest date of expiration.

(4) The readmission obligation under the provision of Articles 3 and 4 of this Agreement shall not apply if persons are:

(a) third country nationals whose readmission was not requested by the competent authorities within one (1) year from the date when the competent authorities have revealed the fact of the illegal entry or illegal staying;

(b) nationals of a third country with which the Requesting Party has common borders.

Article 4
Readmission of Third Country Nationals on the Basis of the Advance Notification

The Contracting Parties shall, without any particular formalities and after advance notification of the other Contracting Party, readmit the third country nationals who illegally entered the territory of the State of the Contracting Party directly from territory of the State of the other Contracting Party provided that readmission is requested within seventy two (72) hours from illegal entry.

Article 5
Conditions of the Third Country Nationals Readmission

(1) The Requesting Party shall readmit third country nationals without any particular formalities if the Requested Party establishes within thirty (30) days from readmission that the conditions stipulated in sections one and three of Article 3 and in Article 4 hereof did not obtain at the time of readmission.

(2) Persons shall be readmitted exclusively at the border crossing points designated by the Contracting Parties in a Protocol on Implementation of this Agreement.

(3) The Contracting Parties shall do everything in their power to return third country nationals directly to their countries of permanent residence or nationality (citizenship).

Article 6
Deadlines

(1) The Requested Party shall reply to the readmission request not later than with­in fourteen (14) days from the date when the readmission request is received.

(2) Following the response of the Requested Party, readmission shall take within thirty (30) days.

(3) The time limits stipulated in section one and two of this Article may be extended upon mutual agreement of the Contracting Parties in case of legal or factual hindrances related to readmission, but only until such hindrances are eliminated.

Article 7
Transit of Third Country Nationals

(1) Upon a transit request of a Contracting Party, the other Contracting Party shall enable the transit of third country nationals by air, who are subjects to expulsion procedures in the Requesting Party with the objective of being readmitted by a third country and whose readmission and trans­portation across additional transit states to the state of destination is guaranteed.

(2) A transit request shall not be submitted or it may be rejected when it can be presumed on good grounds that:

(a) the third country national is threatened by the death penalty or may be subject to torture, inhuman or humiliating treatment or persecution on grounds such as race, religion, nationality, belonging to a social group or political affiliation in the state of destination or any transit country;

(b) the third country national is threatened by prosecution on a criminal offense or the enforcement of a penalty either in the state of destination or in any transit country, with the exception of forbidden border crossing;

(c) the transit of third country national may be a threat to national security, public security, public order, public health or to international relations of the Requested Party;

(d) there is no practical possibility to execute transit.

(3) The transit request shall be submitted by the competent authorities directly to one another no later than three (3) days before planned transit. The competent authorities of the Contracting Parties shall agree on the directly time, place and mode of transit.

(4) Transit by air can only be provided without leaving the transit lounge of the airport of the Requested Party.

(5) The Requested Party may require that the representative of the competent authority of the Requesting Party be present as an escort during transit through its territory.

(6) The Requesting Party shall provide all the documents required for the purposes of the travel, valid travel documents, other necessary permits and valid tickets required for traveling to the state of destination and through the territories of the transit states, and the declaration of admission of the state of destination.

(7) If the transit request is rejected by the Requested Party because any of the necessary conditions stipulated in section two of this Article is met, the Requesting Party shall be informed in writing about the grounds for the rejection.

(8) Third country nationals may be returned to the Requesting Party if facts are discovered or circumstances are set which frustrate transit or onward journey. Once such reasons are stated, the Requesting Party shall be obliged to readmit the persons earlier admitted for transit.

Article 8
Costs

(1) All costs arising in relation to the transportation of persons readmitted under Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Agreement up to the border of the Requested Party and the costs of an eventual return shall be born by the Requesting Party.

(2) All costs that may arise from or in relation to the transit and eventual return of third country nationals, regulated under Article 7 of this Agreement, shall be born by the Requesting Party.

Article 9
Providing Information

In the event of personal data being transferred in connection with the implementation of this Agreement, such information shall contain the following only:

(a) upon request, the personal identification data of the person to be readmitted/transited and, when necessary, of his family members (e.g. surname, forename, previous name, if any, alias or nickname, date and place of birth, gender, previous and current nationality);

(b) data indicated in the identity card, passport, other personal or travel documents (number, validity, date and place of issue of the document, issuing authority, etc.);

(c) other data required for the identification of the person to be readmitted/transited or for examining whether the conditions of admissions are met;

(d) residence permit and visas issued by Contracting Parties or third countries, route, places of stay, tickets, border control points and other data about the journey.

Article 10
Data Protection

(1) Personal data transferred shall be used by the Contracting Parties exclusively for purposes stipulated in this Agreement and only in accordance with the conditions stated by the Contracting Party transferring such data.

(2) Upon request by the transferring Party, the receiving Party shall provide information about the use of the personal data transferred and the results achieved.

(3) Personal data shall be transferred only to the authorities competent for the implementation of this Agreement. Disclosure of any data to any other authority shall be subject to the prior written consent of the Contracting Party transferring such data.

(4) The transferring Contracting Party shall be responsible for the completeness and correctness of the data transferred. If it is established that erroneous data or data that should not have been transmitted have also been handed over, the receiving Party shall be notified immediately, and it shall take prompt action to rectify the erroneous data or to delete the data, which should not have been transferred.

(5) Whenever enabled by the provisions of the laws of the States of the Contracting Parties, information shall, upon his request, be provided to the transferred person concerning the data managed in relation to his person. The person concerned may request the rectification or deletion of his data when it is ascertained that erroneous data, or data that should not have been transferred, have been transferred.

(6) The Contracting Parties guarantee the possibility of recourse to the courts for the persons concerned when their personal data have been used not for the purpose and not in the way specified in this Agreement or not by the authorities competent for the implementation of this Agreement.

(7) Upon the transfer of the data, the transferring Contracting Party shall state the due dates for the deletion of the data as specified in the legislation of its State. Notwithstanding the above, data received shall be deleted as soon as they are no longer necessary.

(8) The Contracting Parties shall maintain records about the transfer, receipt and deletion of personal data.

(9) The Contracting Parties shall provide effective protection for the transferred personal data against unauthorized access, alteration and disclosure.

Article 11
Implementation of the Agreement

The Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and the Ministry of Interior of Georgia shall sign the Protocol on the Implementation of this Agreement, which shall define:

(a) the documents on the basis of which nationality can be established or presumed;

(b) the competent authorities taking action and the mode of mutually exchanging of information;

(c) the procedure to be followed in the course of implementation, and the data and documents required for readmission, transit and the establishment of identity and nationality;

(d) the mode of substantiating illegal entry;

(e) the mode and procedure of bearing costs;

(f) the border crossing points designated for the readmission of persons.

Article 12
Relations with Other International Agreements

(1) The provisions of this Agreement shall not apply in the case of legal aid concerning extradition between the States of the Contracting Parties.

(2) This Agreement shall not affect the acknowledged rights of the nationals of the States of the Contracting Parties, the provisions of existing international agreements between the Republic of Latvia and Georgia and the obligations of the States assumed under other international agreements.

(3) The present Agreement shall not affect the provisions of the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 8 July 1951 as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967.

Article 13
Disputes

The Contracting Parties shall settle any disputes arising in relation to the interpretation and implementation of this Agreement and/or the Protocol on Implementation through the Commission of Experts, made up of representatives from the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties. When this is impossible it should be settled through diplomatic channels.

Article 14
Closing Provisions

(1) Amendments and additions shall be made to this Agreement on the basis of the mutual written consent of the Contracting Parties. Such amendments and additions will be drawn up as a separate protocol and form integral part of this Agreement. The rule of the entry into force of this protocol will be the same as for this Agreement.

(2) Except for the provisions stated in Articles 2, 9 and 10 hereof, either of the Contracting Parties may suspend application of this Agreement in part or in full on the grounds of the protection of public security, public order and public health, by notifying the other Contracting Party in writing through diplomatic channels. Suspension of the Agreement and the termination of such suspension shall enter into force on the day following the receipt of the diplomatic note to that effect.

(3) The present Agreement is concluded for an indefinite period. This Agreement may be terminated in writing by either of the Contracting Parties through diplomatic channels. The termination shall enter into force on the sixtieth (60) day following receipt of the diplomatic note to that effect.

(4) The Agreement shall enter into force on the thirtieth (30) day following the receipt of the latter diplomatic note concerning the fulfillmgaent of the legal internal procedures required for its entering into force by the Contracting Parties.

Done at Riga, on 11^th day of July 2008 in two originals, in Latvian, Georgian and English languages, all three texts being equally authentic. In case of any dispute, the English text shall prevail.