Brussels, 27/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 27 November, the European Commission signed an agreement with Hong Kong on the readmission of illegal immigrants. This agreement will not concern many people, sources in the Commission acknowledges, but without being able to provide precise figures. More practically, it is especially intended for the readmission by Hong Kong of Chinese holders of false passports from the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong living in the EU. Indeed, as is the case for readmission agreements currently being negotiated, this agreement provides for the readmission of illegal immigrants by the country from which they have arrived, be they nationals of that country or be it a transit country. End-September, the Fifteen had given the green light to this agreement, initialled a year ago, and that still needs ratifying.
Two other readmission agreements have already been initialled, with Sri Lanka (May 2002) and Macao (October 2002). Negotiations began this month with Ukraine. Two years after the Council adopted the mandate, Morocco, like Russia have just agreed to start negotiating. Negotiations have still not begun with Pakistan. Friday, the Council is to approve new mandates to launch negotiations with Turkey, Algeria, China and Albania. The Commission is also considering negotiations with the ACP countries, so as to implement the provisions included in the Cotonou Agreement.