BERLIN: Rights activists in Germany filed criminal cases on Friday against two government ministers after Afghans accepted under a German scheme for at-risk refugees were deported from Pakistan while waiting for their visas.

The group Pro Asyl said Pakistan had arrested and deported several of them, placing them at risk of “arbitrary imprisonment, mistreatment or even execution” in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Pro Asyl and a second group said they had filed charges against Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, accusing them of “abandonment and failure to render assistance” to Afghan refugees caught up in an escalating crackdown by Pakistani authorities.

The cases relate to a government scheme set up under former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Berlin then offered to take in thousands of Afghans who had worked with German institutions or who were particularly threatened by the Taliban. However, as part of an immigration crackdown promised by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who took office in May, the programme has been put on hold.

This has left around 2,000 Afghans stranded in Pakistan waiting for visas to travel to Germany.

The Kabul Airbridge initiative, which aims to help those stuck in Pakistan, said that another 270 Afghans who had been accepted under the German scheme faced being deported on Friday.

In a statement marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, Wadephul on Friday expressed his “deep concern” over the fate of those at risk of deportation.

Germany was “in touch with the Pakistani government at the highest level to ensure these people are protected”, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025