Germany sends refugees to Afghanistan
Country is returning those who failed asylum application
KABUL // A group of 34 Afghan asylum seekers arrived in Kabul yesterday after being deported from Germany, the first such group to be sent back after their applications were rejected.
The Afghans, all men, arrived on a chartered flight from Frankfurt following a disputed Afghan- European Union deal this year aimed at curbing the influx of migrants. “Another 50 Afghan asylum seekers are to be deported from Germany by the end of December or early January,” said Islamuddin Jurat, spokesman for the Afghan ministry of refugees.
Mr Jurat said about 10,000 Afghans returned from Europe this year, even as the security situation worsened amid an escalating Taliban insurgency.
The Afghans were flown to Kabul yesterday despite protests against the deportations by German pro- refugee groups and opposition politicians who argued the country was still unsafe. German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere defended the returns as “right and necessary” to keep Germany’s refugee system operational.
“If German forces work to provide more security, if they work with others to advance reconstruction, then it is possible and reasonable for the Afghan population to return to their own home country,” he said.
Mr de Maiziere, a former defence minister, argued that Taliban attacks largely targeted “representatives of the international community” in Afghanistan, not the civilian population. He said Sweden, another major host country for Afghan asylum seekers, organised a similar flight of returns on Tuesday.
The 34 Afghan returnees were all men and about one third of them had been convicted of crimes, Mr de Maiziere said.
Germany deployed troops to Afghanistan as part of the United States-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks.