Deportation flight from Germany to Afghanistan launched

For the first time since the Taliban seized power three years ago, Germany deported Afghan nationals to their country of origin on Friday morning. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. “These were Afghan nationals, all of whom were convicted criminals who had no right to remain in Germany and who had deportation orders against them.” All of those affected are men, the German Press Agency learned.

The Saxon Interior Ministry announced that the plane took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport on Friday morning. The DPA also confirmed information from “Spiegel” that a Qatar Airways charter jet took off from Leipzig towards Kabul at 6:56 a.m.

According to reports, 28 Afghan criminals who were brought to Leipzig from various federal states are on board the Boeing 787 – three of them from Bavaria. As Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) announced, two of them had been sentenced to prison terms for sexual offenses and the third for an offense under the Narcotics Act. They are 27, 29 and 30 years old.

Bayern puts pressure on

Herrmann called for “further repatriations to both Afghanistan and Syria as soon as possible”. According to the Interior Minister, the “Task Force for Criminals” set up at the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Repatriation is currently dealing with 174 Afghan and 203 Syrian nationals “who are serious criminals and must be brought out of the country quickly”.

Herrmann questioned the general protection of refugees from Syria. There is “no longer any reasonable reason to automatically grant protection to everyone from Syria,” he said, and demanded that “the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees no longer grant subsidiary protection to newly arriving Syrians.” In addition, this protection must also be questioned for Syrians who are already in Germany if they “have committed serious crimes or are considered a threat.”

Federal Ministry of the Interior organized action

According to “Spiegel”, the campaign was organized by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to previous reports, convicted criminals are said to have served a large part of their sentence in this country before a possible deportation.

Germany does not have diplomatic relations with the Taliban rulers in Kabul. After the deadly knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced that the deportation of serious criminals and terrorist threats to Afghanistan and Syria would again be permitted. The deportation flight took off just a few days after the deadly knife attack in Solingen, which was presumably motivated by Islamists, but the lead time was significantly longer, according to official sources. The “Spiegel” newspaper wrote that it was two months.

Among those deported are said to be dangerous people, i.e. people whom the security authorities believe are capable of committing serious politically motivated crimes, including attacks. It is conceivable that some of the deported criminals are also considered dangerous.

Germany also discusses Syria

The Greens in particular and their foreign minister Annalena Baerbock have so far been skeptical about deportations to Afghanistan and warned against indirectly recognizing the Islamist Taliban government. However, Baerbock also said on Tuesday on RBB Inforadio that deportations to Syria and Afghanistan are already possible in isolated cases. “In individual cases, this is possible there,” she said. However, given the regimes in place there, it is “obviously not trivial.” It is also already the legal situation that criminals and dangerous people do not receive protection status or lose it and should be locked away.

Asylum law provides for reasons for exclusion from protection in Germany, such as war crimes. In its “security package”, the traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP has decided to expand this list to include anti-Semitic crimes, among other things.

Few rights for women in Afghanistan

Since August 2021, the Islamist Taliban have been back in power in Afghanistan, and have been criticized internationally, particularly for their massive curtailment of women’s rights. Overall, there has been a significant decline in armed conflicts in the country since the Taliban regained power, although attacks still occur. Most of them are claimed by the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS), which is hostile to the Taliban despite ideological proximity. Members of the Shiite minority in the country in particular are repeatedly targeted by IS. The terrorist militia views Shiites as apostates from Islam and despises them.

Critics complain that under Taliban rule there is a harsh crackdown on human rights activists, demonstrators and journalists, who, according to human rights organizations, face arrest, disappearance or torture.

Note: This article has been updated several times.