Germany brings Taliban delegation to Berlin to speed up Afghan deportations
German media have reported that a three-member delegation from the Taliban administration arrived in Berlin on Wednesday on a secret trip, one that, according to Germany’s foreign ministry, is linked to creating the technical conditions for the deportation of more Afghan citizens. The move comes as Berlin has expanded practical cooperation with the Taliban administration to advance deportation flights.
According to reports, the delegation members first travelled to Doha after leaving Kabul and then headed to Berlin on 30-day visas issued by the German mission in Qatar. Their identities have not yet been made public.
German broadcaster NDR reported that the delegation members are currently based at the Afghan embassy in Berlin’s Grunewald district and are expected to remain in Germany for about three weeks. According to the report, they will also visit the Afghan consulates in Bonn and Munich next week.
Germany’s foreign ministry said the focus of the mission is to create the technical prerequisites for the faster deportation of Afghan citizens. The ministry added that a “technical support team” has also entered Germany for a short period to accelerate the process.
This comes as the scope of deportations has also broadened. According to German media, at the beginning only asylum seekers who had committed serious crimes were to be deported to Afghanistan, but on the latest deportation flight, some asylum seekers with no criminal record were also returned.
NDR also reported that this is not the first time representatives of the Taliban administration have been in Germany. Last year, two consular officials from the administration also entered Germany, and according to the network’s information, one of them is now effectively running the Afghan embassy in Berlin, while the other is responsible for the Afghan consulate in Bonn.
According to the German government, the purpose of these individuals is to provide consular services to Afghans living abroad and facilitate the deportation of Afghan citizens, a matter also foreseen in the German government’s coalition agreement. However, NDR’s investigation shows that alongside their official duties, they have also played a role in sidelining diplomats appointed by the former government and steering Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions in Germany towards the Taliban administration’s policies.
Based on the same investigation, they have also been tasked with facilitating the transfer to Afghanistan of the Afghan embassy in Berlin and the country’s consulates in Bonn and Munich, revenue earned from the issuance of passports and official documents and, according to NDR, transferred through the bypassing of financial sanctions.
In early Saratan, German media also reported that after a secret meeting between German officials and representatives of the Taliban administration, Berlin agreed to accept six more diplomats from the administration. NDR said the agreement was reached after several days of secret talks in a hotel in Istanbul.
Germany’s interior ministry had at the time confirmed that talks had taken place at a “technical level” between representatives of the ministry and representatives of the Taliban administration, but gave no further details. Germany is one of Europe’s key countries in the asylum and migrant deportation fields, and the Afghan embassy in Berlin and the country’s consulates in Bonn and Munich are among the main centres providing consular services to Afghans living in the country.
