The government is negotiating the joint management of migration with Tunisia - the country which now produces the highest number of illegal immigrants to Italy, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The foreign ministry's director-general for Italians abroad and migration policies, Luigi Vignali, chaired a meeting in Rome Wednesday to finalise an accord with Tunisia aimed at strengthening collaboration on migration and development, the statement said.
Senior officials from the foreign and labour ministries of both countries attended the meeting, the statement went on.
The negotiating teams have been hammering out a framework agreement on the concerted management of migration flows, to develop the areas of Tunisia that migrants opt to leave and to consolidate cooperation on repatriating Tunisian migrants, said the statement.
Some 14,000 Tunisians have reached Italy by boat across the Mediterranean in the past two years, according to the statement.
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