Agreement Between The Government Of The Republic Of Latvia

And The Government Of The Republic Of Slovenia On Readmission Of Persons

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

with a desire to facilitate, in the spirit of good co-operation and on the mutual basis, the readmission of persons, whose entry into and / or residence in a country are contrary to the national law,

have agreed as follows:

I. READMISSION OF THE NATIONALS

OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

Article 1

(1) Each Contracting Party shall, upon request of the other Contracting Party and without any formalities, readmit to its territory any person, who does not, or does not any more, comply with the conditions for entry or stay, applicable in the territory of the requesting Contracting Party, if it is ascertained or validly presumed, that such person has the nationality of the requested Contracting Party. The same shall apply to persons who have been deprived of the nationality of the requested Contracting Party since entering the territory of the requesting Contracting Party, without acquiring the nationality of any state.

(2) The nationality may be ascertained or presumed on the basis of a certificate of nationality, a passport or an identity card, even if such documents were issued incorrectly or if they expired not more than three years ago. The nationality may be validly presumed also on the basis of other data.

(3) The requesting Contracting Party shall, under the same conditions, readmit a person again, if it has been ascertained through further verifications that the person did not have the nationality of the requested Contracting Party and the provisions of Article 2 of this Agreement cannot be applied to him / her.

II. READMISSION OF NATIONALS

OF THIRD STATES AND STATELESS PERSONS

Article 2

(1) Each Contracting Party shall readmit to its territory, upon a request of the other Contracting Party and without any formalities, a national of a third state or a stateless person who does not, or does not any more, comply with the conditions for entry or residence applicable in the territory of the requesting Contracting Party, if it was ascertained that such person had entered the territory of the Contracting Party directly after having sojourned in or travelled through the territory of the requested Contracting Party.

(2) Each Contracting Party shall, upon a request of the other Contracting Party and without any formalities, readmit a national of a third state or a stateless person who does not, or does not any more, comply with the conditions for entry or residence applicable in the territory of the requesting Contracting Party, if such person has a valid visa, except from unused transit visa, or any other valid residential permit, issued by the requested Contracting Party.

Article 3

The obligation of readmission as provided in Article 2, shall not exist in case of:

a) nationals of third states, that have a common state border with the State of the requesting Contracting Party;

b) nationals of third states or stateless persons who obtained, after they left the territory of the requested Contracting Party or after they entered the territory of the requesting Contracting Party, a visa or residential permit from the latter;

c) nationals of third states or stateless persons who have resided in the territory of the requesting Contracting Party for the last six months;

d) nationals of third states or stateless persons who were recognised by the requesting Contracting Party either the status of refugee on the basis of the provisions of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of July 28, 1951 and the provisions of the New York Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of January 31, 1967, or the status of stateless person on the basis of the New York Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of September 28, 1954;

e) nationals of third states or stateless persons, actually returned by the requested Contracting Party to their state of origin or to any other third state.

Article 4

The requesting Contracting Party agrees to accept to its territory those nationals of third states or stateless persons for whom it would be ascertained, after adequate verification carried out by the requested Contracting Party, that they do not comply with the clauses under Articles 2 and 3 of the present Agreement at the time of their departure from the territory of the requesting Contracting Party.

III. READMISSION PROCEDURE

Article 5

(1) The requested Contracting Party is obliged to answer the request for readmission in writing without delay, and in any case within a maximum of fifteen days. Any refusal of the readmission shall be founded.

(2) The requested Contracting Party shall, within one month at the latest, readmit a person whose readmission was confirmed. This period may be extended upon request by the requesting Contracting Party.

Article 6

The requested Contracting Party shall issue a confirmation of readmission to the requesting Contracting State, including the identity data of the person whose readmission was requested, and any possible documents of such person.

Article 7

The requesting Contracting Party shall cover the expenses of transportation of persons to be readmitted as far as to the border of the requested Contracting Party as well as, where necessary, the costs arising from return transport.

IV. TRANSIT IN CASE OF REJECTION

Article 8

(1) Each Contracting Party will allow, upon request from the other Contracting Party, entry into and transit through its territory to nationals of third states or stateless persons who were rejected by the requesting Contracting Party at the border. The transit may be carried out by road, railway or air transport.

(2) The requesting Contracting Party shall take full responsibility for the continuation of the travel of such person to the country of destination and will readmit such person, if the measure of rejection cannot be carried out for any reason.

(3) The requesting Contracting Party will confirm to the requested Contracting Party, that the person for whom the transit was approved, has a document for the transportation to the State of destination.

Article 9

(1) The Contracting Party that implemented the measure of expulsion, shall inform the requested Contracting Party in case the rejected person needs an escort. The requested Contracting Party may, in connection with the transit:

— decide to appoint its own escort;

— decide to appoint escort in coordination with the Contracting Party that implemented the measure of expulsion.

(2) If the transit is performed by an airline company of the Contracting Party that applied the measure of expulsion, and with a police escort, this can be done by the Contracting Party alone, under the condition, that they do not leave the international zone at the airport of the requested Contracting Party.

(3) If the transit is performed by an airline company of the requested Contracting Party and with a police escort, this will be provided for by the requested Contracting Party under the condition, that the Contracting Party that applied the measure of expulsion covers all the expenses that may occur.

(4) If a transit must be, exceptionally, done by road or railway, the Contracting Parties shall agree about the necessity and modality of the escort.

Article 10

The request for the transit shall be exchanged directly between the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties. The request should contain all data pertaining to the identity and nationality of the person, the date of travel, the time and place of the arrival to the transit state as well as the time and place of the departure from it to the state of destination and including all data of the officials, if they accompany such a person.

Article 11

The transit may be rejected if the person is to be prosecuted in his / her destination state because of his / her race, religion, ethnicity or membership of a certain social group or because of his / her political opinion.

Article 12

The requesting Contracting Party shall cover all the expenses of the transit, as well as any expenses which may occur in case of return.

V. GENERAL CLAUSES

Article 13

The Contracting Parties shall define through the diplomatic channels:

— the airports, that may be used for the readmission or for entry of persons in transit;

— the state authorities responsible for dealing with applications for readmission or transit.

Article 14

Insofar as personal data have to be communicated in order to implement this Agreement, such information may concern only the following:

a) particulars of the person to be transferred and, when necessary, of his family members, such as surname, given name, any previous name, nickname or pseudonym, alias, date and place of birth, sex, current and any previous nationality;

b) passport, travel document, laissez-passer or other identity document;

c) other details needed to identify the person to be transferred;

d) itineraries, and

e) entry permits issued by one of the Contracting Parties or a third state, their descriptions.

Article 15

(1) The provisions of the present Agreement shall not interfere with any obligations of readmission or return of foreign nationals which derive from other international agreements in force for the Contracting Parties.

(2) The provisions of the present Agreement shall not prevent the application of the provisions of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of July 28, 1951, complemented by the New York Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of January 31, 1967 and the New York Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of September 28, 1954.

(3) The provisions of the present Agreement shall not prevent the application of the provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4, 1950.

Article 16

(1) This Agreement shall apply provisionaly from the date of its signature and shall enter into force on the date of the receipt of the latter note by which the Contracting Parties notify each other of the fulfilment of all internal legal requirements necessary for its entry into force.

(2) Each Contracting Party may temporarily suspend the implementation, in whole or in part, with the exception of Article 2 of this Agreement for reasons of state security, public order or public health by notification to the other Contracting Party. The suspension may enter into force immediately.

(3) This Agreement is concluded for an indefinite period. Each Contracting Party may terminate this Agreement by notification to the other Contracting Party. The termination shall become effective on the first day of the second month following the month in which the notification was received by the other Contracting Party.

In confirmation of the above, the representatives of both Contracting Parties, duly authorised for this purpose, have signed the present Agreement.

Done at Lubljan on the 5th day of March 1998 in two originals in Latvian, Slovenian and English languages, all three texts being equally authentic. In case of any dispute or difference in the interpretation of the present Agreement, the English text shall prevail.

ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT

OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA

VALDIS BIRKAVS BORIS FRLEC

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS