Germany and Tunisia agree on new migrant deal

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday Tunisia had agreed to take back 1,500 rejected Tunisian migrants from Germany, after an attack by a Tunisian national on a Christmas market in Berlin which killed 12 people.

Merkel had told Tunisia she wanted to speed up repatriation of failed asylum-seekers after Islamic State supporter Anis Amri drove a truck through the market in December.

Amri had been denied asylum six months earlier. Merkel has come under heavy pressure for policies that allowed a million refugees into Germany in two years. Merkel said that Tunisia and Germany have agreed on measures to avoid bureaucratic delays.

“We have taken up this problem and agreed that German identification requests are being answered within 30 days. We are going to help Tunisia with installing a general registration system and the deadline for the issuing of replacement identification papers will be less than a week,” Merkel said at a news conference with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi in Tunis.

Essebsi said Tunisia would send a delegation to verify the identities of those returning. German authorities have detained another Tunisian man they suspect of involvement in the truck attack.

Merkel also said the German government would provide Tunisia with 250 million euros in aid for development projects.


REUTERS