Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has announced the planned entry of additional Afghan protection seekers who are currently stranded in Pakistan. According to information from the Bundestag administration, he told the parliament’s Interior Committee on Wednesday that further admissions would take place in the coming weeks, possibly in greater numbers. The group includes nearly 2,000 people from four different German admission programs.
Anyone who has a legally binding commitment for admission and successfully completes the process and security screening can be brought to Germany. According to Dobrindt, those without such a commitment must expect that they will not be able to come to Germany.
The minister said, according to the information provided, that the federal government is working to complete these admissions by the end of the year. However, from Germany’s perspective, the admission of affected individuals would also still be possible in January or February.
After the non-public special session of the Interior Committee, the Left Party expressed strong criticism of Dobrindt. The party’s migration expert, Clara Bünger, stated that the minister had “made it unmistakably clear that Afghan women and men with an admission commitment under the human rights list and the so-called bridging program will not be admitted and have no future in Germany.”
“Dobrindt is hiding behind paragraphs instead of taking political responsibility for people at risk,” Bünger continued. “This bureaucratic coldness is shocking.”
The protection seekers include, in part, former local staff of the Bundeswehr and other German institutions and organizations. Others are considered particularly at risk, for example because of their work for women or for human rights in general. The individuals belong accordingly to the Federal Admission Program, the bridging program, the local staff procedure, or appear on the so-called human rights list for people in particular need of protection.
The federal government launched these admission programs after the radical Islamist Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. The programs were intended to permanently enable particularly endangered Afghan women and men to enter Germany for humanitarian reasons.
However, the CDU/CSU and SPD agreed in their coalition agreement to end the admission programs “as far as possible.” The Union, in particular, has taken a critical stance on admitting Afghan nationals and points, among other things, to security concerns.
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