Immigration Mrs. Curtis-Thomas To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with which countries of origin of migrants the UK has readmission agreements; when each such agreement was signed; and with which countries her Department is negotiating such agreements. Mr. Woolas The UK has always maintained the position that all countries are under an obligation to readmit their own nationals who are removed from another country, independently of readmission agreements. The UK wants to build international alliances to help deliver our policies. A key element of this is to co-operate on migration through bilateral and multilateral relationships with other countries. To this end the UK has formal agreements and informal arrangements with various countries to readmit their nationals. Only where there is a specific need does the UK seek to negotiate readmission agreements. There is a bilateral readmission agreement in force with Switzerland, signed on 16 December 2005, and we also have another with Algeria which was signed on 11 July 2006. There are currently no negotiations being undertaken for a bilateral readmission agreement with any third country. The UK also works closely with our European partners in the area of returns. The European Union has its own framework of agreements called European Community Readmission Agreements (ECRA). These are negotiated and signed by the European Commission on behalf of the member states and Ministers decide on the UK's opt-in position to these agreements. There are 11 European Community readmission agreements which have been signed and are now in force as follows: Hong Kong signed on—27 November 2002 Macao signed on—13 October 2003 Sri Lanka signed on—4 June 2004 Albania signed on—14 April 2005 Russia signed on—25 May 2006 Ukraine signed on—18 June 2007 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia signed on—18 September 2007 Serbia signed on—18 September 2007 Montenegro signed on—18 September 2007 Bosnia Herzegovina signed on—18 September 2007 Moldova signed on—10 October 2007 There are also open ECRA mandates with the following countries, but these are at various stages of negotiation and agreements have yet to be signed: China, Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey and Georgia. The UK has opted into all ECRAs negotiated so far, and to all negotiating mandates proposed to date.