Republike Slovenije
Mirko Bandelj l. r.
Za Vlado
Republike Estonije
Paul Varul l. r.
The Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Estonia,
with a desire to facilitate, in the spirit of good co-operation and on the mutual basis, the readmission of persons, whose entry into or residence in a country are contrary to the national law,
have agreed as follows:
I. READMISSION OF THE NATIONALS OF THE CONTRACTING STATES
Article 1
(1) Each Contracting State shall, upon request of the other Contracting State 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 State, if it is ascertained or validly presumed, that such person has the nationality of the requested Contracting State.
(2) The nationality may be ascertained or validly presumed on the basis of a citizenship certificate, 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 State shall, under the same conditions, readmit a person, if it has been ascertained through further verifications that at the moment of leaving the territory of the requesting Contracting State, the person did not have the nationality of the requested Contracting State.
II. READMISSION OF THE NATIONALS OF THIRD STATES AND STATELESS PERSONS
Article 2
(1) Each Contracting State shall readmit to its territory, upon a request of the other Contracting State 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 State, if it was ascertained that such person had entered the territory of the Contracting State directly after having sojourned in or travelled through the territory of the requested Contracting State.
(2) Each Contracting State shall, upon a request of the other Contracting State 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 State, if such person has a valid visa or any other valid residential permit, issued by the requested Contracting State.
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 requesting Contracting State;
b) nationals of third states or stateless persons who obtained, after they left the territory of the requested Contracting State or after they entered the territory of the requesting Contracting State, 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 State for the last six months;
d) nationals of third states or stateless persons who were recognised by the requesting Contracting State 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 State to their state of origin or to any other third state.
Article 4
The requesting Contracting State agrees to readmit to its territory those nationals of third states or stateless persons for whom it would be ascertained, after adequate verifications made by the requested Contracting State, 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 State.
III. READMISSION PROCEDURE
Article 5
(1) The requested Contracting State 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 State 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 State.
Article 6
The requested Contracting State 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 State shall cover the expenses of transportation of persons to be readmitted to the border of the requested Contracting State. The requesting Contracting State shall bear also all the expenses in case of readmission of persons, if necessary.
IV. TRANSIT IN CASE OF REJECTION
Article 8
(1) Each Contracting State will allow, upon request of the other Contracting State, entry into and transit through its territory to nationals of third states or stateless persons who were rejected by the requesting Contracting State at the border. The transit may be carried out by road, railway or air transport.
(2) The requesting Contracting State 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 can not be carried out for any reason.
(3) The requesting Contracting State will confirm to the requested Contracting State, 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 State that implemented the measure of expulsion, shall inform the requested Contracting State in case the rejected person needs an escort. The requested Contracting State may, in connection with the transit:
– decide to appoint its own escort;
– decide to appoint escort in coordination with the Contracting State that implemented the measure of expulsion.
(2) If the transit is performed by an airline company of the Contracting State that applied the measure of expulsion, and with a police escort, this can be done by the Contracting State alone, under the conditions that they do not leave the international zone at the airport of the requested Contracting State.
(3) If the transit is performed by an airline company of the requested Contracting State and with a police escort, this will be provided for by the requested State under the condition, that the Contracting State 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 States 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 States. 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 threatened 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 State shall cover all the expenses of the transit, as well as any expenses may occur in case of return.
V. GENERAL CLAUSES
Article 13
The Contracting States 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 any 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 States 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 States.
(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 enter into force on the date of the receipt of the latter note by which the Contracting States notify each other of the fulfilment of all internal legal requirements necessary for its entry into force.
(2) Each Contracting State 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 through written communication to the other Contracting State. The suspension may enter into force immediately.
(3) This Agreement is concluded for an indefinite period. It may be terminated with a three months previous notice through diplomatic channels.
In confirmation of the above the representatives of both Contracting States, duly authorised for this purpose, signed the present Agreement.
Done at Ljubljana on the 16th day of May 1997 in two originals in Slovenian, Estonian 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.
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