Readmission accord with Tunisia discussed
Switzerland will seek improved cooperation with Tunisia on migration issues after the two countries foreign ministers met on Thursday at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos.
A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman said after the meeting that a readmission accord would be negotiated with the Tunisians.
Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter added later that his Tunisian counterpart Rafik Abdessalem was open to further cooperation and that specialists would travel to Switzerland in the coming days to discuss technical details of a potential agreement.
Abdelssalem pointed out during the talks though that Tunisia was facing migration problems of its own, with around 200,000 Libyan refugees on its soil.
More than 2,500 Tunisians filed requests for asylum in Switzerland last year, the second largest group to do so.
However, the Federal Migration Office said last week that Tunisian asylum seekers had practically no chance of being allowed to remain in Switzerland, and that 324 had returned home voluntarily in 2011.
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