The German government is negotiating with Uzbekistan, Georgia, Moldova, Kenya, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan on a migration partnership that would provide for the swift return of illegal migrants to their homeland, Deutsche Welle reported, citing an official of the Ministry of the Interior.
Negotiations with the two Central Asian countries have already progressed quite far, the publication notes. At the beginning of May, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Uzbekistan, and at the end of September – with Kyrgyzstan.
According to the spokesman to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we are talking about reducing the number of illegal refugees and at the same time creating opportunities for legal immigration to Germany.
The German government’s envoy for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, led negotiations in Kenya in September.
Colombia, the Interior Ministry spokesman noted, is on the list, in particular, because the number of applications for asylum from citizens of this country increased from 140 in 2018 to 1,500 in the first half of 2023 alone.
He clarified that “Georgia and Moldova had special priority because more than 10% of rejected asylum applications in Germany come only from citizens of these two countries.” From January to August 2023, 7,405 applications were received from citizens of Georgia, 2,124 from Moldova. The governments of Tbilisi and Chisinau expressed their readiness for negotiations. By now, the federal government has a migration agreement in place with India.