Germany deports 81 Afghan nationals to their homeland in 2nd flight because the Talibans return

German authorities stated a flight took off Friday (July 18, 2025) morning carrying 81 Afghans, all of them males who had beforehand come to judicial authorities’ consideration and had had asylum purposes rejected.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated the deportation was carried out with the assistance of Qatar and preceded by weeks of negotiations. He additionally stated there have been contacts with Afghanistan, however didn’t elaborate.

More than 10 months in the past, Germany’s earlier authorities deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the primary time because the Taliban returned to energy in 2021. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations of asylum-seekers.

Merz famous that, whereas diplomatic relations between Germany and Afghanistan haven’t formally been damaged off, Berlin would not acknowledge the Taliban authorities in Kabul.

“The decisive query is how one offers with this regime, and it’ll stay at technical coordination till additional discover,” he stated at a information convention in Berlin.

The Interior Ministry stated the federal government goals to hold out extra deportations to Afghanistan, however did not specify when that may occur.

Merz made more durable migration coverage a central plank of his marketing campaign for Germany’s election in February.

Just after he took workplace in early May, the federal government stationed extra police on the border — stepping up border checks launched by the Scholz authorities — and stated some asylum-seekers attempting to enter Europe’s largest financial system can be turned away. It additionally has suspended household reunions for a lot of migrants.

Asylum purposes declined from 329,120 in 2023 to 229,751 final 12 months and have continued to fall this 12 months.

“You can see from the figures that we’re clearly on the suitable path, however we’re not but on the finish of that path,” Merz stated.

The Afghan deportation flight took off hours earlier than German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to debate migration along with his counterparts from 5 neighboring nations — France, Poland, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic — in addition to the European Union’s commissioner accountable for migration, Magnus Brunner. Dobrindt is internet hosting the assembly on the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, on the Austrian border.