diff --git a/debian/.gitignore b/debian/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..50ddee8f25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*.debhelper
+/*.debhelper.log
+/*.substvars
+/.debhelper/
+/convert-emoji
+/debhelper-build-stamp
+/files
+/gir1.2-gtk-3.0/
+/gtk-3-examples/
+/gtk-update-icon-cache/
+/libgail-3-0/
+/libgail-3-dev/
+/libgail-3-doc/
+/libgtk-3-0-udeb/
+/libgtk-3-0/
+/libgtk-3-bin/
+/libgtk-3-common/
+/libgtk-3-dev/
+/libgtk-3-doc/
+/tmp/
diff --git a/debian/clean b/debian/clean
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..210b77ca2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/clean
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+debian/convert-emoji
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 1e548a3856..446ae7af84 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Build-Depends: adwaita-icon-theme <!nocheck>,
                dh-sequence-gir,
                fonts-cantarell <!nocheck>,
                fonts-dejavu-core <!nocheck>,
+               gcc:native,
                gnome-pkg-tools (>= 0.11),
                gobject-introspection (>= 1.41.3),
                gsettings-desktop-schemas <!nocheck>,
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ Build-Depends: adwaita-icon-theme <!nocheck>,
                libgirepository1.0-dev (>= 1.39.0),
                libglib2.0-dev (>= 2.57.2),
                libharfbuzz-dev (>= 0.9),
+               libjson-glib-dev:native,
                libpango1.0-dev (>= 1.41.0),
                librsvg2-common <!nocheck>,
                libwayland-dev (>= 1.14.91) [linux-any],
diff --git a/debian/control.in b/debian/control.in
index de8eb322c0..04f6fb7c5a 100644
--- a/debian/control.in
+++ b/debian/control.in
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Build-Depends: adwaita-icon-theme <!nocheck>,
                dh-sequence-gir,
                fonts-cantarell <!nocheck>,
                fonts-dejavu-core <!nocheck>,
+               gcc:native,
                gnome-pkg-tools (>= 0.11),
                gobject-introspection (>= 1.41.3),
                gsettings-desktop-schemas <!nocheck>,
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ Build-Depends: adwaita-icon-theme <!nocheck>,
                libgirepository1.0-dev (>= 1.39.0),
                libglib2.0-dev (>= 2.57.2),
                libharfbuzz-dev (>= 0.9),
+               libjson-glib-dev:native,
                libpango1.0-dev (>= 1.41.0),
                librsvg2-common <!nocheck>,
                libwayland-dev (>= 1.14.91) [linux-any],
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 55216690d6..f875e1d4c0 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -166,6 +166,15 @@ override_dh_clean: debian/control
 # Add dependencies to generate files from the debian/*.in ones
 override_dh_auto_build: $(call dh_subst_files,$(all_binaries))
 
+override_dh_auto_build: rebuild-emoji
+rebuild-emoji:
+	gcc -o debian/convert-emoji gtk/emoji/convert-emoji.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs json-glib-1.0`
+	set -eu; for input in debian/missing-sources/emojibase/packages/data/*/data.raw.json; do \
+		lang=$$(echo $$input | sed -ne 's,^.*/\([a-z][a-z]\)/data.raw.json$$,\1,p'); \
+		output=gtk/emoji/$$lang.data; \
+		debian/convert-emoji $$input $$output; \
+	done
+
 override_dh_autoreconf:
 	NOCONFIGURE=true dh_autoreconf ./autogen.sh