Germany has followed through on its announcement that it would deport "criminal" Afghan refugees and asylum seekers back to Afghanistan despite not having formal relations with the Taliban’s de-facto government.
A plane carrying 28 Afghan men convicted of crimes in Germany took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport for Kabul early on August 30, according to German officials. The men had been transported from across the country to Leipzig for the flight, which was arranged by the Interior Ministry.
A senior official from the Taliban's Transportation and Civil Aviation Ministry, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to Radio Azadi that they had given approval for a plane flying from Leipzig to land at Kabul International Airport. The official declined to provide any details regarding the passengers onboard the aircraft, which was expected to arrive in Kabul in the evening.
All of the deportees aboard the chartered Qatar Airways flight were "convicted offenders who had no right to stay in Germany and against whom deportation orders had been issued," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
Hebestreit said Berlin had "asked key regional partners for support in order to facilitate the deportations," without providing further details.
A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said on August 30 that Germany had no intention of normalizing its relations with the Taliban.
SEE ALSO: Afghanistan Slides Into 'Ever More Hellish Conditions' After New Morality Law Enacted"As long as the general conditions are as they are and the Taliban behave the way they do, there will be no effort to normalize relations with the Taliban," the spokesperson said. "There are contacts on a technical level, especially through our representative office in Doha."
Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said the operation followed two months of "secret negotiations" in which Qatar, which has sustainable contacts with the Taliban authorities, served as an intermediary between Germany and the Taliban-led government.
The controversial development comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in June that Germany would restart deportations of dangerous criminals and terror suspects to Afghanistan and Syria.
Scholz's announcement came after an Afghan refugee was charged in a deadly knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May. This week, after a Syrian refugee suspected of killing three people in Solingen was taken into custody, Scholz vowed to speed up deportations.
The issue has also become a major topic of debate ahead of regional elections on September 1 in the Saxony and Thuringia regions, where anti-immigration parties are expected to do well.
SEE ALSO: 3 Years Later, Afghans Still Reeling From Impact Of Devastating Kabul Airport AttackGermany emerged as a major destination for Afghans fleeing insecurity and poverty at home and, after the Taliban retook power after nearly 20 years of war against a U.S.-led coalition, the prospect of persecution by the hard-line Islamist group.
Following the Taliban takeover in 2021, Germany halted deportations to Afghanistan and, like all countries, has refused to recognize the Taliban-led government and has no formal relations with it.
Germany is also a major destination for Syrians seeking to escape that country's civil war and rule under leader Bashar al-Assad. Syrians are the largest refugee group in Germany, with hundreds of thousands allowed into the country since 2015.
In 2020, Germany allowed a ban on deportations to Syria that had been in place since 2012 to expire.
The backlash against refugees and asylum-seekers rose significantly among conservative and hard-right politicians after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of stabbing a German police officer to death and injuring five others in May.
In June, Scholz met with leaders of Germany’s 16 states in Berlin to discuss restarting deportations of Afghan and Syrian immigrants convicted of serious crimes.
SEE ALSO: The Azadi Briefing: Thousands Of Afghans Detained By Taliban's Morality PoliceMichael Stuebgen, the interior minister of the eastern state of Brandenburg, argued that Germany could engage in talks with the Taliban and that parts of Syria are secure enough to allow the returns of refugees.
In lieu of relations with the Taliban, Interior Ministry officials reportedly considered the possibility of routing Afghan deportees through third countries such as Uzbekistan and also discussed ways of conducting asylum proceedings in third countries.
Opponents argue that deportations of Afghans and Syrian refugees would go against the German Constitution and commitments under international law and that the outsourcing of asylum procedures would violate asylum-seekers' human rights.
Amnesty International Germany on August 30 harshly criticized the resumption of deportations.
"The rule of law also means adhering to international law," the rights watchdog said on X. "Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, and torture are the order of the day in Afghanistan. No one is safe there. If the German government deports people anyway it risks becoming an accomplice of the Taliban."
As the issue heated up in recent months, the Interior Ministry stressed that the deportations would affect only a small number of people.
The German government did not provide details on the crimes for which the 28 Afghans deported on August 30 had been convicted. However, AFP quoted the Justice Ministry of the Baden-Wuerttemberg state reportedly said one was convicted of participating in a gang rape of a 14-year old girl and another had more than 160 criminal convictions.
Following news that the deportation of Afghans had resumed, Green party co-leader Omid Nouripour was quoted as saying he welcomed the effort to expel serious criminals but said it did not signal the start of large-scale deportations.
"Law-abiding people, especially families and children who have fled from radical Islamists," are protected in Germany, he said.