BERLIN: A new group of Afghans who had been pro­mised refuge in Ger­many arrived on Wednesday, the latest to escape months of limbo in Pakistan.

An interior ministry spo­kesman said that 28 Afg­h­ans landed at Hanover airport in the early afternoon.

The Afghans were acc­e­pted under a refugee sch­eme set up by the previous German government, whi­ch was frozen after cons­e­rvative Chancellor Frie­d­r­ich Merz took office in May.

Since then, around 2,000 Afghans have been stuck in Pakistan, where they have been threatened with deportation back to Afgh­anistan. Some of those aff­ected have mounted succ­e­ssful legal challenges aga­i­nst the German governm­ent, forcing the authorities to allow them entry.

A first group of 47 Afg­h­ans who won their cases arrived in Germany earlier this month, and those who came on Wednesday had also been successful in the courts.

According to the Airbridge Kabul initiative, set up to help those affected, the latest group — five men, 10 women, and 13 children — arrived on a commercial flight from Islamabad.

However, around 250 Afghans who had been waiting to go to Germany have been deported from Pakistan in recent weeks. On Wednesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said that none of them has yet been able to return to Pakistan.

The German scheme was aimed at Afghans who had worked with German forces in Afghanistan or who were deemed at particular risk from the Taliban, for example, journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists.

Since Merz’s conservati­ve-led coalition governm­ent took power in May, it has put the process on ice as part of a wider push to tou­ghen immigration policy.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025