Around 200 Afghans waiting for visas to Germany in Pakistan have been deported in recent days, confirmed the German Foreign Office to the German press agency dpa on August 18. The news comes hot on the heels of statements on Friday, in which human rights activists decided to file a claim against the German government regarding this situation.

Two German government ministers, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, are being sued by the human rights activists from the groups Pro Asyl and a network of sponsors for those who worked with German organizations prior to the Taliban takeover (Patenschaftsnetzwerk Ortskräfte).

The claim issued by the activists and filed in German courts on Friday (August 15) accuses the two ministers of "abandonment and failure to render assistance" to Afghan refugees, who have been waiting in Pakistan for months or even years, for the issuing of visas from the German government as part of a variety of different evacuation schemes offered to vulnerable people and those who worked with the German authorities prior to the fall of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of allied troops in the summer of 2021.

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More than two million sent back from Pakistan in two years

Authorities in Pakistan have been rounding up hundreds of thousands of Afghans since April this year, in a drive to return those who no longer have visas or permission to be in Pakistan, and send them back to Afghanistan. The deportation drives began in earnest in 2023, and have reportedly resulted in more than a million Afghans leaving Pakistan since that time. More than 200,000 have been deported since April, reported the European news portal Euractiv.

More than 2,000 of those under threat are Afghans who had been assessed and given places on various German evacuation schemes.

On Friday, the human rights organizations in their press release claimed that there had been a deportation of a group of 34 Afghans on the German lists on August 13.

They add that in the last four weeks, "at least 400 Afghan nationals who had been accepted on one of the German programs" have been detained. The organization says their detention and deportation places them "at risk of arbitrary imprisonment, mistreatment or even execution" in Afghanistan, where the Taliban hold control. They added that according to "media reports," on the night of August 14, a further 20 Afghan nationals who were on the German lists were taken to a deportation center in Islamabad. Pro Asyl claimed in their press statement that the German government was "aware of this."

Germany's Foreign Ministry told dpa on Monday that around 450 of those on the German schemes had been detained by Pakistan authorities, but around 245 had subsequently been released, after the German authorities got in touch with their Pakistani counterparts.

They added that of the 211 who had been deported, accommodation for the group had been arranged via the Pakistani authorities in Afghanistan, and talks were ongoing to allow that group to return to Pakistan.

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German evacuation programs

The evacuation programs were begun under Germany’s previous coalition government, set up under Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Via the schemes, Germany offered sanctuary to thousands of Afghans, some of whom had direct connections to Germany, and others who were particularly in danger of the new regime, like journalists and human rights activists.

Although a few flights landed just before the previous government handed over to the new one in May, since then, flights and the programs have been suspended, even for those who had already reportedly passed all the required security checks and assessments and were just waiting for visas and flight tickets to be issued.

The Kabul Airbridge initiative, another German organization helping those in danger in Afghanistan, many of whom worked previously with German troops or other German government projects in the country, told Euractiv that they believed at least 270 more Afghans who had been accepted under German government schemes were due to be deported on Friday.

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German government response

In a statement issued on Friday, marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Minister Wadephul expressed his "deep concern" over the fate of those at risk of deportation in Pakistan.

The Foreign Minister added that Germany was "in touch with the Pakistani government at the highest level to ensure these people are protected," reported the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).

The German Interior Ministry has not made mention of the court case in their press releases published online. However, the German Foreign Ministry did publish a statement from Minister Wadephul on August 15, in which he underlined how difficult the conditions were for all those still in Afghanistan.

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Development aid in Afghanistan

In the statement, Wadephul said that around 23 million people in Afghanistan did not have sufficient access to food, drinking water or medical help. Children and pregnant women are particularly hard hit by food shortages, stated the minister.

Wadephul added that in his opinion, these people needed "help immediately, also from Germany". He pointed out that Germany has been providing emergency humanitarian aid in Afghanistan where it can, mostly via international humanitarian organizations like the UN. The German Development Ministry (BMZ) has set aside a further 5.8 million euros for helping the "catastrophic situation" in Afghanistan.

At the end of the statement, Wadephul underlined that the situation for Afghans in Pakistan who were waiting to be granted visas to Germany as part of the programs was "very worrying." Wadephul acknowledged that many of them were being threatened with deportation and that he was trying to help anyone threatened with deportation as quickly as possible.

One German court ruling in July declared that the German government had a "legally binding commitment" to bring all those it had already placed on its evacuation programs to Germany. But since then, the actual programs have stayed on ice, with no flights departing Pakistan for Germany with Afghan refugees on board.

The current German government, conscious of the pressure coming from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, further right of them, which advocates for much stronger migration policies, promised that it would end the admissions scheme started under the previous government and speed up the deportations of convicted criminals, even to countries like Afghanistan and Syria.

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Afghans waiting in Pakistan feel 'forgotten'

On their website on Friday (August 15), Pro Asyl published an interview with an Afghan human rights activist and academic, Dr Alema Alema, who is now living and working in Germany. According to Pro Asyl, Dr Alema studied for a degree in Germany, before returning to work in Afghanistan in 2002. When the Taliban took over, she was among those who were evacuated, and is then conducting research on Afghanistan for a Pro Asyl foundation, via the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.

In an interview with Pro Asyl, Dr Alema said that she was in contact via several WhatsApp groups with various people in Pakistan who had been accepted on German programs.

Some of them had been brought to Pakistan with "German support," as it was too dangerous to wait in Afghanistan for the checks and visa process to be carried out, she said. Although these people had come to Pakistan with valid visas, many of them had seen their visas run out before their German visas had come through. Some of them, said Alema, had told her their passports were being held by the German embassy in Islamabad, which had so far prevented them from being deported, as the Pakistani authorities would need to obtain their passports before they could send them back.

Dr Alema added that some had told her they had been accepted to the program in Germany, and then had that permission rescinded. She added that many in that community felt that Germany had "forgotten" its promises and left the Afghans alone with their fate.

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Return to Afghanistan 'could mean death'

Judith Wiebke, a spokesperson for Pro Asyl, stated in the press release from the organization that the group believed they had to sue the German government to try and force them to fulfil the promised visas to the group.

Alexander Fröhlich from the Patenschaftsnetzwerk added that they believed 300 Afghans with promised places on the German schemes were currently in Pakistan. Many of them had been waiting there for at least eight months, Fröhlich added. The spokesperson said that they were seen as the "enemy" in today’s Afghanistan and if sent back there, it would mean "for many of them death."

Fröhlich added that some of the group had already been sent back to Afghanistan, including one minor without her parents. "There, the young girl has absolutely no rights," explained Fröhlich.

Dr Robert Brockhaus, the lawyer handling the case against the German government on behalf of the claimants, said that that in his opinion, the German government put itself into a problematic position where it could be sued a month ago, when they were made aware that people on the German programs were among those being sent back to Pakistan and that they could face death in Afghanistan.

Brockhaus added that since the German government didn’t appear to have done anything to hinder the danger facing those who are deported from Pakistan, they could put themselves in the way of even more claims in the future, especially if those who were deported were tortured or killed in Afghanistan.

With AFP and dpa

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