EU concocts plan to return 80,000 Afghan asylum seekers

BRUSSELS — More than 80,000 Afghans will face being deported from Europe “in the near future” under a secret EU plan, amid warnings of a new influx as the country descends into chaos.

The European Commission will threaten to reduce aid to Afghanistan that represents 40 per cent of the country’s GDP unless the “difficult” Kabul government agrees to the mass repatriation of tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers.

It admits the financial threat, if delivered, would result in the collapse of the fragile state. In return for Kabul’s co-operation, though, the Afghan elite would be rewarded with university places in Europe as part of an explicit EU strategy to use aid and trade as “incentives” for foreign governments to take back migrants.

The plan is revealed in a joint discussion document, marked “EU Restricted,” which was sent to national ambassadors on March 3.