“We do not reach out to the Taliban regime. We seek technical collaboration in the interest of our country”: with these words, before the Bundestag (Federal Parliament), the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, justified this week the negotiation undertaken these days with four representatives of the Afghan regime. Its purpose is to accelerate the deportations of Afghans convicted of serious crimes. The meeting took place in Berlin, almost parallel to the contacts maintained in Brussels at a similar level, amid the stupor of NGOs such as Pro-Asyl, which denounce normalizing relations with an atrocious regimeand the connivance of other EU member states, defenders of the hardest line on immigration matters. As a whole, they represent a broad political spectrum ranging from the government of the social democrat Mette Frederiksen, in Denmarkto the Italian far-right Giorgia Meloni.
The purpose of Berlin is to organize three charter flights a month to deliver convicts to Kabul for serious crimes committed in Germany. The government alliance between the conservative Merz and his social democratic partners is considerably ahead of other EU countries when it comes to deportations of Afghan criminals, as well as Syrians. The first materialized in 2024, through indirect contacts with the Taliban regime; Now he began to negotiate with representatives of the regime.
From the trickle of deportations to three charters a month
Those affected are small groups among the total of almost half a million refugees or other citizens of Afghan origin who live in the country. Deportation flights have so far materialized in formats of between twenty and a maximum of 80 deportees. These are always, according to Berlin, adult Afghans convicted of serious crimes, mostly sexual violence. But they set a dangerous precedent, as NGOs and two opposition parties – The Greens and The Left – denounce, for implying a de facto recognition of the Taliban regime as an interlocutor.
Merz assured in the last control session of the Bundestag that “we are not normalizing the regime.” He recalled that technical relations with Kabul have never been cut. Without them it would not have been possible to remove the 48,000 Afghans welcomed by Germany since the return of the Taliban to power, in 2021. Among them were 37,000 people in a “high risk” situation or threatened by the Afghan regime.
The chancellor insisted that these are “technical, not political” meetings. And he supported his Minister of the Interior, the also conservative Alexander Dobrindt, whose powers include the execution of these deportations.
With 1,000 euros in your pocket
The truth, remembers the Left, is that Berlin opened the thundercage with the first expulsions that materialized in 2024, even with the government of then Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a coalition between social democrats, greens and liberals. They took place under the impact of a series of stabbing attacks committed by Syrian or Afghan refugees. For the first time since the return of the Taliban to power, there was a deportation flight that year for 28 convicted criminals, with crimes such as the gang rape of a minor under 14 years of age or multiple repeat offenders convicted of kidnapping or robbery with violence.
They left Germany with 1,000 euros as “pocket money” for expenses. They were not produced by direct negotiation with Kabul, but rather Qatar acted as an intermediary. There were then other deportation flights under similar conditions, always in small groups. Each of these flights ran into administrative obstacles and last-minute appeals, which sometimes managed to stop an expulsion at the airport itself. Some controversy was also generated around those 1,000 euros. For sensational media like Bildwere a farewell gift to rapists with which an Afghan family can live for half a year. The NGOs reported, however, that this money literally evaporated upon arrival in Kabul, seized by its authorities.
Merz’s purpose is to expedite these deportations by eliminating the need for a third country mediator. The framework on which the German government now relies to move from deportations negotiated with Qatar to the direct route is an agreement recently reached with Kabul. So far this year, only 77 deportations had been carried out, spread over three flights. Now the horizon is the aforementioned three charter flights per month.
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