Chancellor Friedrich Merz has opted to accommodate Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership for a deal to deport Afghan migrants back to their home country as the German far-right rises. Last October the government came to an agreement with the Afghan government, allowing Taliban officials control of diplomatic missions in Berlin and Bonn in exchange for permission to return Afghans; however, activists argue this puts many Afghans at risk.
The One-of-a-Kind Bargain
Afghan migrants are the second-largest group of asylum seekers in Germany after Syrians, making them an easy target for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who continuously vow to deport more migrants.
Most nations, including Germany, do not recognize the Taliban regime – only Russia does – however, Germany was the first European state to begin establishing ties with them to be able to return Afghans to their home country.
With the agreement in October, Germany also became the first EU country to allow Taliban-appointed officials to work in diplomatic missions inside the country. Before, it was the former, western-oriented Afghan government officials filling these positions.
“We are not extending a hand to this Taliban regime,” Merz said in the German parliament in June. “Rather, we are seeking cooperation at the necessary technical level, which is in our country’s national interest.”
The EU and its member states closely monitor the new policy, which could establish a potential future precedent. But it also worries other German parties, Afghans in Germany, and activists.
Risky for Afghans Residing in Germany
Around 35,000 Afghans moved to Germany under special humanitarian programs, designed for people vulnerable to the Taliban. This includes human rights activists as well as Afghans who aided the German military while they were present inside the country during the two-decade-long conflict. These people are especially worried they would have to face Taliban officials when renewing their Afghan passports, which are necessary to renew their humanitarian visas.
Another 312,000 Afghans are in Germany as refugees or with other protective statuses. For them, it is needed to apply for permanent residence status.
There is also the issue of personal data stored in diplomatic missions, which the new Taliban staff could gain access to, including details about family members. This would open an avenue for extortion and blackmail.
“Given my personal history and my stance on extremism, I am concerned for my safety and that of my family,” one former teacher from Afghanistan, anonymous due to his fear of retribution from the Taliban, told POLITICO. “Sometimes I wake up at night because of nightmares related to the Taliban and this situation.”
Hamid Nangialay Kabiri, the former head of the Afghan consulate in Bonn, who quit over this deal, warned that Germany itself may be leveraged after the Taliban are let into the country. “They are destroying my country, and now they are coming here,” he said. “They are not thinking of diplomacy. They have a lot of plans in their mind.”
Left-wing German politicians fear the same. “We’re seeing recognition through the back door. The Taliban are being granted access to embassies, they’re being granted immunity, they’re given channels for dialogue — and at the same time, the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is getting worse and worse,” Schahina Gambir, a lawmaker for the Greens who was born in Kabul, told POLITICO.
Dangerous Gamble
Germany is engaging in a risky strategy that not only exposes the EU but also its own citizens to blackmail, enabling the Taliban to establish connections and further its interests from within the country. In exchange, it can return Afghans, but those who are returned also face peril.
A spokesperson for the Taliban-controlled Afghan interior ministry, Abdul Mateen Qani, told German public broadcaster ARD last year that deportees are dealt with “according to Sharia law.”
Zarmina Paryani, an Afghan midwife who fled to Germany with her four sisters, worries about the situation. She and her sisters were imprisoned twice for protesting the Taliban after they retook the capital in 2021.
“It’s hard to accept that my fate and my affairs are being discussed with the very same representatives whose oppression, prisons, whippings and violence I fled from,” she said.
“A Taliban member once wrote to me: ‘Just wait until our embassy in Germany reopens. Then we’ll find you there,’” she told POLITICO about a comment under one of her social media posts about two years ago. At the time, it seemed so unrealistic. “Today, I feel as though that threat has become a reality.”
