{"id":269,"date":"2025-10-06T16:05:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2025\/?p=269"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:43:21","slug":"germany-strengthens-collaboration-with-the-taliban-in-its-effort-to-deport-afghan-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2025\/germany-strengthens-collaboration-with-the-taliban-in-its-effort-to-deport-afghan-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200b\u200bGermany strengthens collaboration with the Taliban in its effort to deport Afghan migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, a German delegation traveled to Kabul to speak with Taliban government representatives about Germany\u2019s efforts to return Afghan migrants with criminal records to Afghanistan. The meeting reflects the German government\u2019s growing reliance on the Taliban, which it does not officially recognize but which it has relied on to help carry out its migrant deportation program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of diplomacy with the Taliban legitimizes terror and oppression and betrays those who have worked with us for a democratic Afghanistan,\u201d Green Party representative Luise Amtsberg <\/span>told<\/span><\/a> Tageszeitung.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The German government\u2019s Afghan deportation efforts are one element of its broader hardline policies on immigration, which it has adopted due to pressure from far-right, anti-immigrant parties such as Alternative f\u00fcr Deutscheland (AfD). To carry out these restrictive policies, the German government has become an uncomfortable bedfellow of the Taliban, an organization widely condemned for its human rights abuses and restrictive treatment of women. Human rights organizations and other analysts have <\/span>denounced<\/span><\/a> both the government\u2019s deportation agenda and its collaboration with the Taliban.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wednesday meeting <\/span>involved<\/span><\/a> a senior member of Germany\u2019s Interior Ministry and senior Taliban officials including Mohammed Nabi Omari, the first deputy to Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A History of Deportation<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Chancellor Friederich Merz\u2019s government has scaled up efforts to deport certain Afghan migrants since it took power in February. Around 400,000 people who were born in Afghanistan <\/span>currently live<\/span><\/a> in Germany, which has been a center for Afghan migration since the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current government successfully carried out its first flight of deported migrants in August, removing 81 Afghans from Germany. \u201cThese are Afghan men who are legally required to leave the country and who have a criminal record,\u201d the Interior Ministry <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Germany received international criticism for the move. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, stated in a press conference that it \u201cwas not appropriate to return people to Afghanistan\u201d given continued human rights violations in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Under international conventions, it is unlawful to deport people to their home country if it is likely they will experience human rights violations in that country. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch claim that the Taliban\u2019s rule has made Afghanistan an unsafe place for deportations, and that Germany may be violating international law by deporting people to the country, even if they have received criminal convictions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cFor Afghanistan, it\u2019s easiest to make that point that every return would amount to a violation of human rights non-return obligations,\u201d said Julian Lehmann, Program Manager at the Global Public Policy Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Nonetheless, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has since signaled his intention to accelerate the deportation of Afghan migrants, including to Syria. \u201cMy goal is to deport regularly and systematically,\u201d he told DPA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The August flight was the second to have taken place since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Merz\u2019s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, <\/span>deported<\/span><\/a> 28 Afghan migrants in August 2024, following backlash after an Afghan migrant <\/span>killed<\/span><\/a> a police officer in a mass stabbing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the Taliban took power, deportations of this kind were common. Between 2016 and 2021, Germany removed over 1,100 Afghan migrants from its borders.<\/span><\/p>\n

A report from the time <\/span>found<\/span><\/a> that more than 90 percent of migrants deported to Afghanistan faced some level of violence upon their return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Germany <\/span>suspended<\/span><\/a> its deportation program after the Taliban took control of the Afghan government, given the danger posed by deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Political Landscape<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Merz\u2019s government has made migrant deportations one of its core priorities. The ruling \u201cgrand coalition,\u201d consisting of the center-right Christian Democratic Union\/Christian Social Union (CDU\/CDU) alliance and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), ran on a campaign pledge to \u201cstart deporting people to Afghanistan and Syria, beginning with criminals and dangerous individuals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Striking a balance on the issue of migration has been a challenge for the ideologically diverse coalition. To Martin S\u00f6kefeld, a migration scholar at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen, its conservative voters have been pushed to the right on immigration by inflammatory rhetoric from the far right, which has identified deportation as an effective tool to control migration. \u201cIt has become a highly emotional and symbolic issue to try to deport people, particularly to Afghanistan and also to Syria,\u201d S\u00f6kefeld said.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, CDU also faces pressure from the left to take a strong stance against AfD\u2019s proposed solutions to that question, which the left describes as extreme.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lehmann said that CDU\u2019s actions, including its collaboration with the Taliban, demonstrates that the party failed to strike this balance, and has instead followed an approach proposed by the AfD. \u201cThey haven\u2019t walked the line,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve passed it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taliban Talks<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s meeting is the latest evolution of a complex relationship between Germany and the Taliban government in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the one hand, Germany refuses to recognize the Taliban government because of its human rights violations. On the other, it has relied on the Taliban to carry out its deportation agenda. According to Georg Menz, a migration professor at Old Dominion University, it is difficult to facilitate the kind of deportations that Germany seeks without maintaining an open line of communication in Kabul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To balance these competing priorities, Merz has claimed that his government\u2019s collaboration with the Taliban falls short of official recognition because it is of a technical, not political, nature. During the two deportation flights under the Scholz and Merz governments, Germany stated that it relied on communication with \u201ctechnical contacts\u201d in Kabul, mediated through Qatar. \u201cRather than formally recognize the Taliban and negotiate with it directly, Germany used Qatar as a go-between,\u201d said Michelle Pace, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and a professor in global studies at Denmark\u2019s Roskilde University.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the German government emphasized that Wednesday\u2019s meeting consisted of \u201ctechnical talks\u201d concerning the deportations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite these moves, Germany has remained adamant that it does not intend to recognize the Taliban. \u201cDiplomatic recognition of the Taliban regime is not up for discussion. That is simply out of the question,\u201d Merz said at a press conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Taliban may yield further gains from its assistance to Germany in the long term. \u201cIn the absence of diplomatic recognition, Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government would welcome engagement on migration management as a way to build rapport with the West,\u201d Pace stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEngagement will likely come at the expense of those seeking protection from the Taliban regime,\u201d she added.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But potential consequences to deported individuals has not stopped the Merz government from pursuing deportations. To S\u00f6kefeld, it can react with a simple response: \u201cIt\u2019s not our issue anymore.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, a German delegation traveled to Kabul to speak with Taliban government representatives about Germany\u2019s efforts to return Afghan migrants with criminal records to Afghanistan. The meeting reflects the German government\u2019s growing reliance on the Taliban, which it does not officially recognize but which it has relied on to help carry out its migrant<\/p>\n

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