German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a new agreement with Tunisia on tackling illegal migration during a visit on Friday, following tensions over the case of Tunisian suspect in the Berlin market attack.
Merkel, on a two-day trip to North Africa that also included a stop in Egypt, said Germany and Tunisia had agreed on faster repatriations for rejected asylum seekers and job training for Tunisians, France24 reported.
The German leader, who faces elections in September, is under pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to her country, which has taken in more than one million migrants since 2015.
Merkel, who also addressed Tunisia's Parliament, has urged North African states to step up border controls and expedite procedures to repatriate migrants whose asylum applications are rejected.
Germany has said Tunisian bureaucratic delays meant it could not expel Anis Amri, the suspect in the truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market, which killed 12 people, even though his asylum application had been rejected six months earlier.
Merkel said the two countries had agreed that questions from Germany on the identities of Tunisian asylum seekers will be answered within 30 days.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints