Germany deports 28 Afghans for first time since 2021 Taliban takeover
Al Jazeera
‘Our security counts,’ German interior minister says as government confirms those deported are convicted criminals.
Germany has deported 28 Afghan nationals charged with criminal acts, in the first such move since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
“These were Afghan nationals, all of whom were convicted criminals who had no right to stay in Germany and against whom deportation orders had been issued,” German government spokesman Stefan Hebestreit said on Friday.
The Qatar Airways charter jet carrying the deportees departed for Kabul at 6:56am (04:56 GMT), according to the Ministry of Interior in the eastern state of Saxony.
The men had been brought from across the country to Leipzig for the flight. Sources confirmed to the German news agency dpa that all the Afghan citizens on board the flight were men.
“Our security counts, our constitutional state acts,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on X, and thanked federal police and state authorities for their cooperation.
