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Deportations in Afghanistan with Qatari support

2025-07-18 21:39:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

For the second time since the radical Taliban took power in August 2021, Germany has deported Afghan citizens to their country of origin. On Thursday morning, a plane with 81 men on board took off from Leipzig Airport directly to Kabul. About six hours later, the plane landed in the Afghan capital.

According to the German Interior Ministry, these are "Afghan men who are forced to leave the country" and have been convicted of "serious and very serious crimes." German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) emphasized on the ARD program "Morgenmagazin" (Morning Magazine) that there is a "legitimate interest of citizens" in such deportations.

The repatriation flight was carried out, as in the last operation in August 2024, with the support of Qatar.

Qatar mediates for repatriations

Contacts with the Taliban were conducted exclusively at a "technical level" through a liaison office in Qatar. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) recently emphasized that the Islamist regime is isolated internationally for massive human rights violations and that Germany does not recognize it as a legitimate government.

Interior Minister Dobrindt wants to change this situation. In early July, he told Focus magazine that he aimed to reach direct repatriation agreements with Afghanistan, as a third-party solution cannot be a permanent solution.

Refugee and UN human rights organizations reject these plans. Conditions on the ground are not yet suitable for repatriations, said Arafat Jamal, representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Kabul, in response to Dobrindt's statements. UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani pointed to ongoing human rights violations in Afghanistan, such as executions and the oppression of women.

German human rights organizations also expressed concern. Pro Asyl called the deportation a "flagrant violation of international law." Its spokeswoman, Judith Wiebke, stressed that the Taliban use brutal corporal punishment for violating their moral standards. Julia Duchrow of Amnesty International stated that extrajudicial executions and torture are common in Afghanistan. "Human rights are for everyone or for no one."

Green politician Anton Hofreiter warned on ARD's "Morgenmagazin" program of a "massive reassessment of Islamist terrorism" due to the repatriation flights. According to Hofreiter, "Islamist terrorists" rule Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans forced to flee the country

According to current figures from the German government, there are around 446,000 Afghans living in Germany. 11,423 of them are forced to leave Germany, 9,602 have temporary residence permits and 1,821 are without them. Temporary residence permits are issued when repatriation is temporarily suspended, for example, due to lack of travel documents, illness or continuing training.

Before the change of power in Kabul, Germany regularly operated deportation flights to Afghanistan. The last flight took place in July 2021, the 40th collective deportation flight since 2016. By then, a total of 1,104 men had been repatriated./ DW