Germany has once again deported 23 men to Afghanistan. They were flown on a charter flight from Leipzig to Kabul on Tuesday morning, the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on the online service X. According to the ministry, those deported were "largely offenders who were convicted of serious offences: among them sexual offences and offences of bodily harm."
"Our society has a clear interest in criminals having to leave our country," Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) said on X. He added that one point also remains clear: "Anyone who has no right of residence in Germany must expect to have to leave our country. We are implementing this course consistently."
A protest action against the deportation flight took place at Leipzig Airport on Monday evening. According to the Alliance against Deportations (Bündnis gegen Abschiebungen), 50 people took part. "People from Afghanistan who are seeking protection here are today being deported into the Taliban regime, where exclusion, torture or even death awaits them," said the alliance's spokesman, Kai Adeel. "That is extremely dangerous for them."
Only in mid-June the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that it intended to expand deportations of Afghan offenders to their home country. In future, three charter flights per month would be possible, it said at the time. These are based on agreements with the radical Islamist Taliban, who rule in Afghanistan.
On the most recent deportation flight at the end of July, 31 people were taken to Afghanistan, among them, for the first time, an Afghan who had not committed a criminal offence. However, he had been legally obliged to leave the country, Dobrindt explained at the time.
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