Morocco has promised Germany that it will accept the return of its citizens whose asylum applications have been rejected.
The German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere flew to Rabat with the precise intention of pressing the Moroccan government into cooperation.
German irritation has been more marked of late over countries which consistently refuse to let their own nationals return once Germany has refused them asylum, despite being obliged by international law to comply.
Last week Berlin targeted 17 worst offending countries, sending angry letters predominately to North and West Africa and the Indian sub-continent countries, particularly Pakistan.
As many as 70% of refugees travel with no official documents, rendering identification difficult and time consuming. Many pretend to be Syrian.
Only 21,000 of the 200,000 rejected asylum seekers left Germany last year with the remaining 179,000 stuck there as so-called ‘tolerated’ people. The number is bound to increase as asylum hearings continue.
States like Pakistan, Algeria and Tunisia refuse to cooperate with German authorities.
Just under 4% of Moroccans had their asylum requests granted and a scant 0.2% of Tunisians.
Pakistan is particularly recalcitrant. In 2014 only two out of 580 rejected people were returned. In 2013 the figure was no better with but three out of 533 Pakistanis sent home.
While Germany last week passed a new law easing deportation of migrants convicted of even petty crimes, cooperation from the country of original is still required and this has seldom been forthcoming.
