Italy's anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini will meet Tunisia's president Beji Caid Essebsi and interior minister Hichem Fourati during his first trip to the country on Thursday, the interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Salvini and Fourati will hold a joint press conference at the interior ministry in Tunis after their meeting, the statement said.
After his visit Tunisia to discuss how to stem an influx of migrants to Italy, Salvini will head to Nigeria, the other main country from which migrants to Italy currently originate.
Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe since a crackdown spearheaded by Libyan coast guard, and Salvini wants to speed up expulsions of Tunisian migrants from Italy - their main arrival point.
Tunisian and Nigerian migrants most frequently cite poor economic conditions and high unemployment in their home countries as their reason for undertaking the perilous journey to Europe.
