Is the government changing course?: Why Faeser is now considering deportations to Afghanistan

The public is repeatedly agitated by cases such as that of a 30-year-old refugee from Afghanistan who, with other men, raped a 14-year-old girl in a refugee home in Illerkirchberg, Baden-Württemberg, in 2019. One of the convicted accomplices has since been deported to Iraq. In the case of the 30-year-old, however, this is not possible due to the security situation in Afghanistan.

After the man had served his prison sentence, Baden-Württemberg’s migration minister, Marion Gentges (CDU), called for the Afghan to be returned to his home country. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) rejected this, however, with reference to the danger on site.

But now Faeser is thinking about changing course when it comes to deporting dangerous people and criminals to Afghanistan. “In the case of foreign offenders and perpetrators who pose a threat to public safety in Germany, deportations must be particularly encouraged,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior on Monday. “Therefore, possibilities are being examined as to how deportations of criminals and dangerous people to Afghanistan can take place again – even if the difficulties here are great.”

Deportations to Afghanistan have been suspended since the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government in August 2021. According to the spokesman, in order to resume deportations, it would be necessary to reach an understanding with Afghanistan on the readmission of persons and to agree on the corresponding modalities such as identification, the issuing of documents and the specific return procedures.

In addition, the protection of the escorts and the aircraft crews must be guaranteed. “In view of the extraordinarily difficult security situation and the fact that there is no internationally recognized government in Afghanistan, there are difficult questions to be clarified,” the ministry spokesman concluded.

This is exactly where experts like migration expert Gerald Knaus see a crucial obstacle. In his estimation, the examination will come to the conclusion “that deportations to Afghanistan, no matter how desirable, will not take place”.

The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits the deportation of people to areas where they are threatened with abuse, Knaus told the Tagesspiegel. “Before we get to the moral question, the fundamental practical issues – such as the guarantees of the Taliban government and the security of the escort personnel – are completely unresolved,” he said.

There are no interlocutors in Afghanistan

The project is also made more difficult by the fact that the traffic light parties have different perspectives on the subject. SPD faction deputy Dirk Wiese had told the “world” that a solution was needed to “regulate particularly serious and security-threatening cases”. Stephan Thomae, parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group, made a similar statement.

In order to be deported to Afghanistan, one would have to talk to the Taliban.

Julian PahlkeGreens member of the Bundestag

The Greens member of the Bundestag, Julian Pahlke, told this newspaper that the examination in the Ministry of the Interior was “highly problematic”. The violence and oppression of the Taliban not only affects women and girls, but the entire population in Afghanistan. “In order to be deported to Afghanistan, you would have to talk to the Taliban,” he said. However, this would go against the course of the Western states of not recognizing the Taliban regime politically.

It is currently not at all foreseeable that relations between Berlin and the regime in Kabul will improve. On the contrary. The Federal Foreign Office announced last December that it would review aid in Afghanistan after the Taliban banned women from working for international aid organizations.

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