The German government is conducting talks with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to enable large-scale deportations. The plan is to send back Afghan citizens on regular flights instead of individual expensive charter planes.
German government representatives have initiated direct negotiations with the Taliban about establishing a system for regular deportations, reports the newspaper Bild. A delegation from the German interior ministry met with Afghan representatives in Qatar in early September to discuss a permanent deportation mechanism.
Now interior minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) is planning to send German representatives to Kabul for continued talks on site, where Qatar is functioning as a mediator in the negotiations.
The new strategy represents a dramatic escalation of deportations. Instead of using charter planes for small groups, Afghan citizens would be sent home on regular commercial flights, which would enable significantly more frequent and regular deportations.
Since the Taliban took power in 2021, Germany has only conducted two deportation flights to Afghanistan – 28 people in autumn 2024 and 81 people in July 2025. All those deported were seriously criminal individuals.
Over 100,000 serious crimes
The need for deportations is urgent according to the government. Between 2015 and 2024, German police registered 108,409 serious crimes where at least one Afghan suspect was involved, according to the federal government’s own statistics.
Approximately 11,500 Afghans are estimated to currently be in Germany illegally, according to the German migration office BAMF. In total, around 461,000 people with Afghan roots live in the country, of whom 347,600 have sought asylum in the country.
The CDU/CSU and SPD wrote into their coalition agreement that deportations to both Afghanistan and Syria should resume as quickly as possible.
“We will deport to Afghanistan and Syria and start with criminals and people who pose a security risk”, they promised.
“Inhumane treatment”
The decision faces harsh criticism from asylum activists and lobby organizations, and after the latest deportation in July, the group Pro Asyl claimed that people deported to Afghanistan risk being tortured.
“Due to the dramatic situation on the ground, all deportations to the country violate the international law prohibition on deportation, since torture or inhumane treatment threatens”, they claimed at the time.
With that justification, Germany’s influential refugee organizations therefore continue to demand a complete halt to all deportations to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
