On Sunday, Chancellor Scholz is scheduled to travel to Uzbekistan, where he will also sign a migration agreement, according to media reports. However, the planned conclusion has not been officially confirmed.
According to media reports, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to sign a migration agreement with Uzbekistan during his visit to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This was reported by the Funke media group newspaper and the Reuters news agency. The latter cited government circles. The planned signing has not yet been officially confirmed.
It was already announced in October that the Federal Government’s special representative, Joachim Stamp, was secretly discussing the possibility of a migration agreement with several countries, including Georgia, Moldova, Kenya, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The conversation probably went on since last year.
In June, Der Spiegel reported on talks between the federal government and Uzbek officials. The report said the goal was to facilitate deportations through Central Asian countries to neighboring Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is ready to support Germany in this, but in return it wants to sign a migration agreement that would make it easier for Uzbek nationals to find work in Germany. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior did not want to confirm the Spiegel report.
According to the DPA news agency, Stamp will accompany Scholz on his trip to Uzbekistan, which begins on Sunday, and will be accompanied by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Paeser. During the visit, the prime minister plans to meet with heads of government from all five Central Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Report: No link to deportation to Afghanistan
Reuters now says the return of rejected asylum seekers should play a smaller role in the deal between the two countries. People familiar with the negotiations also stressed that there was no connection between the agreement, which has been under negotiation for weeks, and the possible deportation of Afghan criminals.
Germany deported criminals to Germany for the first time in three years since the Islamist Taliban took power in Afghanistan about two weeks ago. All 28 men were convicted criminals, according to the federal government, and some were classified as so-called dangerous people. The debate over deportations to Afghanistan and Syria has flared up again after the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen.
