Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has met Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni for talks on migration, including the developments in North Africa.

Also high on the agenda was the Dublin agreement, the European asylum accord. Both ministers agreed that cooperation in migration issues should be intensified.

In addition, a Swiss liaison officer will be posted to Rome, said a justice ministry statement on Tuesday evening.

It said that the ministers had discussed the current situation in North Africa, which has led to a flood of refugees to Italy in particular.

The statement added that Italy was Switzerland’s most important partner in implementing the Dublin accord, with cooperation mostly working well.

However,  there was a need for “optimisation in certain areas”, such as people sent back to Italy under the Dublin accord later presenting new asylum applications in Switzerland. The problem arose because Italy had not sent the people in question back to their home countries, the ministry said.

The ministers also discussed police cooperation in fighting organised crime, according to the statement.

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