San Francisco Frontiers - Germany presses ahead with deportations to Afghanistan

Europe's top economy was forging ahead with a "policy change", said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who was also hosting several European counterparts for a migration meeting.

"Deportations to Afghanistan must continue to be carried out safely in the future. There is no right of residence for serious criminals in our country," he said.

The interior ministry said the plane took off Friday morning bound for Afghanistan, adding that all the deportees were under expulsion orders and were convicted by the criminal justice system.

Germany had stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban's return to power in 2021.

But expulsions resumed last year, when the previous government of Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor Olaf Scholz expelled a group of 28 Afghan convicts.

Berlin has had only indirect contact with the Taliban authorities through third parties, with Friday's operation executed with the help of Qatar, said the interior ministry.

Following the announcement, the United Nations said no one should be sent back to Afghanistan, whatever their status.

The UN human rights commissioner called for an "immediate halt to the forcible return of all Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly those at risk of persecution, arbitrary detention or torture upon their return", spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

Amnesty International directly criticised the deportations, saying the situation in Afghanistan was "catastrophic" and that "extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture are commonplace".

- Migration summit -

Merz defended the expulsions at a press conference, saying he was "grateful" to be able to deliver on a promise he had made when entering government.

None of those deported "had a residence status anymore. All asylum applications were legally rejected without further legal recourse," he said. "This is why this deportation and this flight were possible."

The deportations were among a number of "corrections" made to immigration policy by his government, including tightening border controls and limiting family reunification rights for some refugees.

Merz however said policing Germany's borders was only a "temporary" fix and a durable solution was needed at the European level.

To that end, Dobrindt was meeting his Austrian, Danish, Czech, French and Polish counterparts, as well as European Commissioner for Home Affairs Magnus Brunner, in southern Germany.

The aim of the meeting was to "strengthen European migration policy", Dobrindt told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily.

Migration has become a central issue on the German political agenda in tandem with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The AfD scored a historic election result of over 20 percent in February -- its highest-ever score at the national level -- leaving the party nipping on the heels of Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc.

The controversy over immigration has been fuelled by a series of deadly attacks where the suspects were asylum seekers -- including several from Afghanistan.

Germany's new government, a coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD, has promised to expel more foreign criminals alongside a crackdown on irregular migration.

As well as carrying out deportations to Afghanistan, Dobrindt has said he was in contact with authorities to enable deportations to Syria, which have been suspended since 2012.

Longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December, and the country is now under the control of Islamist leaders, some of whom were once linked with the Al-Qaeda jihadist network.

V.Mitchell--SFF