Italian and Tunisian officials held talks at the interior ministry in Rome on Tuesday aimed at accelerating the expulsion from Italy of Tunisian migrants, according to interior ministry sources.
Tuesday's talks were aimed at laying the groundwork for a meeting in the first week of October between Italy's anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini and his Tunisian counterpart Hichem Fourati.
Under a bilateral accord, up to 80 migrants can be sent back to Tunisia from the southern Italian island of Sicily each week aboard two charter flights. Salvini wants to step up the pace of expulsions by increasing the number of migrants who can deported aboard flights.
Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe since a crackdown by Libyan coast guard, aided by armed groups.
Many Tunisian migrants claim they are fleeing high unemployment and inflation amid an economic crisis that began after the 2011 ousting of autocratic president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Salvini has alleged that many of the Tunisian migrants are criminals.
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