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A deportation flight bound for Afghanistan carrying 28 Afghan nationals left Germany on Friday morning, a day after the German government pledged to strengthen its asylum regulations in the wake of a deadly knife attack.
A spokesperson from Saxony’s Interior Ministry told CNN that a plane with the Afghans on board departed from Leipzig just before 7 a.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday afternoon. The Afghans on the flight are convicted criminals from various states across Germany who had been selected by the Interior Ministry, the spokesperson added.
Flight trackers show that a Boeing 787 from Qatar Airlines left Leipzig at 6.55 a.m., traveling to Kabul.
The flight marks Germany’s first deportation of Afghans back to their home country since the Taliban retook power there three years ago, in August 2021. According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the deportations are the result of months of negotiations and planning.
Der Spiegel reported that each deportee, all of whom were male, received a payment of €1,000 ($1,100). The spokesperson for Saxony’s Interior Ministry was unable to confirm this.
In a news conference following the flight’s departure, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit emphasized to journalists that Berlin was not in direct talks with the Taliban. Rather, it secured the deportation through the mediation of key regional powers, he said.
Hebestreit added that the German government has made “intensive efforts” to deport migrants who have committed serious crimes back to Afghanistan and Syria in the wake of a knife attack in the southwestern city of Mannheim at the end of May.
A police officer was fatally wounded during that attack and several others were injured, with German authorities pointing to an Islamist extremism motive. The main suspect was identified as a 25-year-old Afghan refugee.
The deportations also come a day after the German government unveiled a new security package following the fatal attack in the western city of Solingen last week. Three people were stabbed to death in the incident on August 23, which took place during a street festival. The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had previously been due for deportation. He turned himself in and confessed to the attack, police said.
The attack in Solingen has sparked fresh debate in Germany over migration, with the country’s governing coalition, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, receiving criticism for its handling of the issue. It has also served to embolden Germany’s far-right ahead of key state elections this weekend.
The incident spurred Scholz’s government into action, with the chancellor declaring during a visit to Solingen at the start of the week that “we will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Reuters reported.
Source: CNN.com
