Clara Bünger, a member of Germany's Left Party, issued a formal question to the German government about what steps were being taken to speed up the process of getting pre-approved Afghans to Germany.

According to Germany's dpa news agency, the German government issued a response, saying it was working with authorities in Pakistan to exempt those who were due to be taken to Germany from deportation orders.

"The protective measures include the transmission of a list of persons residing in Pakistan and to be admitted to Germany to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry," the government said.

Pakistani authorities are then supposed to use this as a check list to assess each case.

The government added that the list would also help those who are at a high risk of immediate deportation to prove their authorization to come to Germany and stressed that individual letters of support would also be issued to authorities in Pakistan if needed.

According to Berlin, there are still around 11,500 people from Afghanistan who have been accepted to be taken in by Germany and are currently still waiting to travel there.

Around 3,000 of them are in Pakistan.

Read also: UNHCR voices concern for undocumented foreigners in Pakistan

A political move ahead of elections?

Pakistan had announced in October that it would deport undocumented Afghan refugees or those who had entered the country using irregular means, citing security concerns.

However, the plan came just months before parliamentary elections set to be held in February.

Human rights groups as well as several Western governments have decried the move as being politically motivated.

At the time of the announcement of the deportation plan, there were around 4.4 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, according to government figures.

More than a third of them are without papers; some of them are believed to have fled their country in the past, while many are children born to displaced parents.

Read also: Deported Afghans cross Pakistan border confused and angry

with dpa