• Move will halt settlement plans of thousands of Afghan citizens
• Berlin in contact with Taliban govt to allow deportation of convicts

BERLIN: After the US left over 1,600 Afghans — who were promised relocation — in limbo earlier this year, the new centre-right coalition in Germany also intends to close a humanitarian admission programme, aimed at helping those considered at risk from the Taliban.

In a cramped guest house in Pakistan’s capital, 25-year-old Kimia spends her days sketching in a notebook that holds what’s left of her hopes.

A visual artist and women’s rights advocate, she fled Afghanistan in 2024 after being accepted to the German admission programme. But a year later, nothing has changed for her.

The February elections in Germany — where migration dominated public debate and led to a change of government in May — have resulted in the gradual suspension of the programme.

The admission programme began in October 2022, intending to bring up to 1,000 Afghans per month to Germany who were deemed at risk because of their work in human rights, justice, politics or education, or due to their gender, religion or sexual orientation.

However, fewer than 1,600 arrived in over two years due to holdups and cancellation of flights.

Today, around 2,400 Afghans are waiting to travel to Germany, the German foreign ministry said. Whether they will arrive in the country was unclear.

NGOs say 17,000 more are in the early stages of selection and application under the now dormant scheme.

Frei, chief of staff to Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz, said humanitarian migration has now reached levels that “exceed the integration capacity of society”.

“As long as we have irregular and illegal migration to Germany, we simply cannot implement voluntary admission programmes.”

The interior ministry said programmes like the one for Afghans will be phased out and they were reviewing how to do so.

The situation echoes the plight of hundreds of Afghans cleared to settle in the US, who found themselves with nowhere to turn after US President Donald Trump took office in January and suspended refugee programmes.

Kimia’s interview at the German embassy, which she hoped would result in a flight to the country and the right to live there, was abruptly cancelled in April.

Meanwhile, Germany continues to pay for her room, meals and medical care in Islamabad.

Hasseina is a 35-year-old journalist and women’s rights activist from Kabul who fled to Pakistan and was accepted as an applicant into the German programme.

Divorced and under threat from both the Taliban and her ex-husband’s family, who she says have threatened to kill her and take her daughter, she said returning is not an option.

She and Kimia are particularly alarmed as Pakistan is intensifying efforts to forcibly return Afghans.

The German foreign ministry has said it is aware of two families promised admission to Germany who were detained for deportation, and it was working with Pakistani authorities to stop this.

Deportation to Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Berlin is seeking direct contact with Afghan Taliban authorities in Kabul, in a bid to enable criminals to be deported back to Afghanistan.

“I envision us making agreements directly with Afghanistan to enable deportations,” Alexander Dobrindt, the German interior minister, said in an interview with Focus magazine.

Berlin currently has only indirect contact with the Taliban through third parties, an arrangement Dobrindt said “cannot remain a permanent solution”.

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

But a debate over resuming expulsions has flared as migration becomes a key issue amid the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

At least 28 Afghan nationals who had been convicted of crimes were deported in August last year after Germany’s previous government carried out indirect negotiations with the Taliban.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2025