Politics Germany deports to Afghanistan again
For the first time since the Taliban took power three years ago, Germany deported Afghan nationals back to their country of origin on Friday morning. This was announced by government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit.
30.08.2024, 09:15
30.08.2024, 10:17
SDA
"These were Afghan nationals, all of whom were convicted criminals who had no right to stay in Germany and against whom deportation orders had been issued." All those affected are men, as the Deutsche Presse-Agentur has learned.
Start from Leipzig
The Saxon Ministry of the Interior announced that the plane had taken off from Leipzig/Halle Airport on Friday morning. This had previously been reported by "Der Spiegel". The dpa also confirmed "Spiegel" information according to which a Qatar Airways charter jet took off from Leipzig at 6.56 a.m. bound for Kabul.
The Boeing 787 was carrying 28 Afghan criminals who had been brought to Leipzig from various German states. The operation was organized by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to previous information, convicted criminals are supposed to have served a large part of their sentence in this country before possible deportation.
Germany does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban rulers in Kabul. Following the deadly knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the deportation of serious criminals and terrorists to Afghanistan and Syria would be made possible again. Although the deportation flight took off just a few days after the allegedly Islamist-motivated fatal knife attack in Solingen, it has a much longer lead time, according to official sources. Der Spiegel" wrote of two months.
Law provides grounds for exclusion from protection in Germany
The deportees are also said to include dangerous individuals, i.e. people who the security authorities believe are capable of committing the most serious politically motivated crimes, including attacks. It is conceivable that some of the deported criminals are also considered to be dangerous.
The Greens in particular and their Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have so far been sceptical about deportations to Afghanistan and warned against indirectly recognizing the Islamist Taliban government. However, Baerbock also said on RBB-Inforadio on Tuesday that deportations to Syria and Afghanistan are already feasible in individual cases. "It is possible in individual cases," she said. However, it is "obviously not trivial" in view of the regimes ruling there. Furthermore, it is already the legal situation that criminals and dangerous individuals are not given protection status or lose it and should be locked up.
Asylum law provides for grounds for exclusion from protection in Germany, for example war crimes. In its "security package", the "traffic light" coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP has undertaken to expand this list to include anti-Semitic crimes, among other things.
Few rights for women in Afghanistan
The Islamist Taliban have been back in power in Afghanistan since August 2021 and have been criticized internationally for their massive curtailment of women's rights. Overall, there has been a significant decline in armed conflicts in the country since the Taliban returned to power, although attacks still occur. Most of these are claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia, which is at enmity with the Taliban despite their ideological proximity. In particular, members of the Shiite minority in the country are repeatedly targeted by IS. The terrorist militia regards Shiites as apostates of Islam and despises them.
Under Taliban rule, critics complain of a crackdown on human rights activists, demonstrators and journalists, who are threatened with arrest, disappearance or torture according to human rights organizations.
