Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland in 2nd flight since the Taliban’s return

BERLIN AP Germany deported dozens of Afghan men to their homeland on Friday the second time it has done so since the Taliban returned to power and the first since a new regime pledging a tougher line on migration took office in Berlin German officials declared a flight took off Friday morning carrying Afghans all of them men who had previously come to judicial leadership attention and had had asylum applications rejected Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the deportation was carried out with the help of Qatar and preceded by weeks of negotiations He also noted there were contacts with Afghanistan but didn t elaborate More than months ago Germany s previous cabinet deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations of asylum-seekers Merz noted that while diplomatic relations between Germany and Afghanistan have not formally been broken off Berlin doesn t recognize the Taliban executive in Kabul The decisive question is how one deals with this regime and it will remain at technical coordination until further notice he revealed at a news conference in Berlin The Interior Ministry announced the regime aims to carry out more deportations to Afghanistan but didn t specify when that might happen Merz made tougher migration strategy a central plank of his campaign for Germany s vote in February Just after he took office in early May the regime stationed more police at the demarcation stepping up edge checks introduced by the Scholz establishment and explained specific asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe s biggest market system would be turned away It also has suspended family reunions for various refugees Asylum applications declined from in to last year and have continued to fall this year You can see from the figures that we are obviously on the right path but we are not yet at the end of that path Merz stated The Afghan deportation flight took off hours before German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to discuss migration with his counterparts from five neighboring countries France Poland Austria Denmark and the Czech Republic as well as the European Union s commissioner responsible for migration Magnus Brunner Dobrindt is hosting the meeting on the Zugspitze Germany s highest peak on the Austrian margin Source