Germany is deporting hundreds of migrants to Turkey following a bilateral deal reached by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Tayyip Erdogan, according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

As the newspaper reports, ““After months of negotiations with the government in Ankara, the federal government has begun deporting a large number of Turkish citizens to their homeland,” while the first special flights to Turkey have already taken place. Turkey, notes FAZ, has offered to accept up to 500 people a week from Germany. “While it continues to reject deportations carried out by charter flights, it seems willing to accept such flights only if they are designated as special“, the newspaper clarifies and explains that this is related to the involvement of the Turkish airline company Turkish Airlines in the case of special flights.

Deportations to Turkey are a “sensitive” issue, writes FAZ, as “it is a country of great geopolitical importance for Germany and its NATO partners”, but the number of Turkish asylum seekers has increased especially since the re-election of Tayyip Erdogan and due to the economic situation in the country. In total, more than 13,500 Turks are asked to leave Germany.

Also according to the newspaper, the Turkish government has become particularly cooperative on the issue after the visit of the Turkish president to Berlin in November 2023. For its part, Germany has pledged to promote the acceleration of visa issuance for Turks who want to visit Germany, although Ankara is constantly asking for the liberalization of travel visas.