Italy's government will repatriate migrants arriving from Tunisia as they are not eligible to claim political asylum or refugee status, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.
"Whoever arrives from Tunisia will be sent back because it's a safe country with which we want to build further dialogue and investment," Di Maio told TV channel Rai News 24.
"We have Italian companies there which we want to continue working with," he added.
Tunisia's war-torn neighbour Libya "is another matter", Di Maio said, noting that Italy has "excellent cooperation" with the Libyan government to staunch migration across the Mediterranean.
