Today, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser signed a comprehensive migration and mobility partnership agreement with Kenya on behalf of the Federal Government. Kenyan President William Ruto and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz also attended the signing ceremony. The agreement provides for boosting regular migration by skilled workers and for facilitating returns of Kenyan citizens required to leave Germany.

Preventing irregular migration

At the signing ceremony, Federal Minister Faeser thanked the Kenyan side for the good cooperation. “We want to rigorously enforce the return of people who have no right to remain in Germany – this is an important component of curbing irregular migration,” she said. “We have reached good agreements for achieving this. At the same time, we want to attract the skilled workers that we urgently need in many sectors of our economy.” Through the agreement, the Federal Government is also opening up new opportunities for vocational training and higher education in Germany.

Recruiting skilled workers and enabling returns

Cooperation on returns is an important part of the agreement. Kenya has become the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to agree to use biometric data to identify migrants required to leave Germany. It will also accept expired passports and identity cards as travel documents to enable returns, and will grant a longer period of validity for passport substitutes.

The agreement’s provisions on immigration by skilled workers reflect key principles set forth in the new Skilled Immigration Act. The agreement also provides for cooperation partnerships in the area of vocational training and will bolster immigration for the purpose of studying in Germany.

Migration partnerships with other countries

The Federal Government is in the midst of confidential talks and negotiations with multiple countries. These include Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Morocco, Ghana and the Philippines , along with other countries.
Migration partnerships are specifically tailored to each country. Some of them are based on international treaties, while others are based on memorandums of understanding (MoUs) or the establishment of bilateral working structures for practical and trusting cooperation.