Germany wants to negotiate a direct agreement with the Taliban to take back Afghan nationals set for deportation, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. "My idea is that we make agreements directly with Afghanistan to enable repatriations," said in an interview on Thursday with the weekly news magazine, Focus. "We still need third parties to conduct talks with Afghanistan. This cannot remain a permanent solution." In August, Germany resumed flying convicted Afghan nationals back to Afghanistan after suspending deportations after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Berlin said those flights were facilitated with the support of "key regional partners". But now, Germany wants to do this directly in cooperation with the Taliban in Kabul. In the Thursday interview, Dobrindt said Berlin is also in contact with Damascus in a bid to reach an agreement on the deportation of Syrian migrants convicted of crimes in Germany. Dobrindt represents the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Merz has pledged to deport people to Syria and Afghanistan, as well as stop refugee admission programmes for former local staff of German agencies in the latter. The admission programmes were set up after the Taliban takeover was said to be a direct threat to their lives due to possible retaliation. Migration was a key issue as Germans headed to the polls to vote in February's snap federal elections following the rise of the far right and several high-profile attacks by migrants. Syrians and Afghans make up the two largest groups of asylum seekers in Germany, with 76,765 Syrians and 34,149 Afghans applying for asylum last year, according to official figures. On Friday, the United Nations criticised plans to strike a deal with the Taliban to return migrants to Afghanistan. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, told reporters in Geneva it was "not appropriate to return people to Afghanistan." "We have been documenting continuing human rights violations in Afghanistan," she said, highlighting severe restrictions on women's rights and executions. Arafat Jamal of the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) in Kabul said his organisation still had a "non-return advisory" in place for Afghanistan. "In other words ... the conditions on the ground are not yet ready for returns," he said. "We urge countries not to forcibly return to Afghanistan." Germany does not recognise the Taliban government since its takeover in 2021 after NATO troops withdrew from the country and maintains no official diplomatic ties with Kabul. On Friday, Russia became the first country in the world to formally recognise the Taliban government and establish full diplomatic links with Kabul. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi stated that he hoped the move would serve as an example to other countries, but it was criticised by opposition figures and human rights groups. — Euronews
