Berlin () – A deportation flight bound for Afghanistan carrying 28 Afghan nationals left Germany on Friday morning, a day after the German government pledged to tighten its asylum rules following a deadly knife attack.
A spokesman for Saxony’s Interior Ministry told that a plane left Leipzig with the Afghans on board shortly before 7 a.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday afternoon.
The Afghans on the flight are convicted criminals from several German states who had been selected by the Interior Ministry, the spokesman added.
Flight trackers show a Qatar Airlines Boeing 787 left Leipzig at 6:55 a.m. local time, bound for Kabul.
The flight marks the first deportation of Afghans to their home country from Germany since the Taliban retook power there three years ago in August 2021. According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the deportations are the result of months of negotiations and planning.
Der Spiegel reported that each deportee, all men, received a payment of 1,000 euros ($1,100). A spokesman for Saxony’s Interior Ministry could not confirm this.
At a news conference after the flight’s departure, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit stressed to reporters that Berlin was not in direct talks with the Taliban. Rather, it secured the deportation through the mediation of key regional powers, he said.
Hebestreit added that the German government has made “intensive efforts” to deport migrants who have committed serious crimes to Afghanistan and Syria following the knife attack in the southwestern city of Mannheim in late May.
A police officer was fatally wounded in the attack and several others were injured, and German authorities have pointed to an Islamist motive. The main suspect was identified as a 25-year-old Afghan refugee.
The deportations also come a day after the German government unveiled a new package of security measures following last week’s deadly attack in the western city of Solingen. Three people were stabbed to death in the Aug. 23 incident, which took place during a festival. The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with suspected links to ISIS, who had previously been deported. The suspect turned himself in to authorities and confessed to the attack, according to police.
The Solingen attack has sparked a new debate in Germany over immigration, with the country’s ruling coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz facing criticism for its handling of the issue. It has also served to embolden Germany’s far right ahead of key state elections this weekend.
The incident prompted Scholz’s government to spring into action, with the chancellor saying during a visit to Solingen earlier this week that “we will have to do everything possible to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to remain in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Reuters reported.
The new security measures unveiled by the administration at a press conference on Thursday are intended to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, and also to tighten gun laws.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser promised during the press conference to “speed up the pace of repatriations” and “take further measures to reduce illegal immigration”, while reinforcing the authorities’ power to combat Islamic extremism.
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is aiming to win elections in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia scheduled for Sunday. The AfD is currently leading in the polls in both states.
The anti-immigration party has used the Solingen attack as a political campaign tool, with Björn Höcke, the party’s regional leader in Thuringia, telling voters they have a choice between “Höcke or Solingen”.
Immigration has long been a hotly debated topic in Germany. Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has often advocated a more open immigration policy in Germany.
During the 2015 European migrant crisis, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), adopted an “open door” policy that saw hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in Syria and elsewhere arrive in Germany, a move that drew both praise and criticism.
– ’s Claudia Otto reported from Berlin and Sophie Tanno from London.
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