Tunisia, Germany Announce New Immigration Deal
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published March 03, 2017 | 06:55 PM
TUNIS, Mar 3 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Mar, 2017 ) : Tunisia and Germany announced a new agreement on tackling illegal migration, during a visit on Friday by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The accord follows frictions between the two countries over the case of a Tunisian rejected asylum seeker blamed for a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people. This agreement "will satisfy Tunisia and will satisfy Germany, " Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said at a joint press conference.
Merkel, on a two-day trip which also included a stop in Egypt, said Germany and Tunisia agreed on speedier repatriations for rejected asylum seekers and job training for Tunisians. "We agreed that questions on identities (of Tunisian asylum seekers) from Germany will be answered within 30 days," she said.
"We will also help Tunisia to set up a registration system. Replacement passports are then meant to be issued within one week." Germany has previously said that Tunisian bureaucratic delays meant it could not expel the Tunisian suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack, Anis Amri, even though his asylum application had been rejected six months earlier.
Speaking in Tunis, Merkel announced 250 million Euros ($264 million) in development aid. "The funds are for rural development, small and medium enterprises, but mainly for youths... who especially need job training and employment opportunities," she said.
Merkel, who faces elections in September, is under pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany, which has taken in more than one million migrants since 2015.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From World
-
NFL will allow players to wear Guardian Cap helmets in games
53 minutes ago -
Football: German Bundesliga table
53 minutes ago -
Football: Italian Serie A result
53 minutes ago -
Football: German Bundesliga results
53 minutes ago -
US troops to leave Chad in second African state withdrawal
53 minutes ago -
Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap: Canada minister
1 hour ago
-
Biden stalls on menthol cigarette ban fearing Black vote backlash
1 hour ago -
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
1 hour ago -
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
2 hours ago -
Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
2 hours ago -
'Ballistic' Bairstow stars as Punjab pull off record T20 chase
2 hours ago -
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 2nd update
2 hours ago