Rejected Afghan asylum seekers deported from Germany
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 15 December 2016 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Rejected Afghan asylum seekers deported from Germany, 15 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5975a3571c.html [accessed 19 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Last Updated: December 15, 2016
Young Afghan migrants headed for Europe this summer.
More than 30 Afghan men whose asylum applications were rejected in Germany have arrived in Afghanistan after they were deported.
Reports say a charter plane with the deportees on board arrived in Kabul from Frankfurt on December 15.
The group was the first to arrive back in Afghanistan after an agreement was made between the Afghan and German governments in October.
Germany took in 890,000 migrants last year, mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Berlin has sought to manage the influx by speeding up the asylum process for the applicants most likely to receive it, such as Syrians fleeing civil war.
At the same time, authorities have accelerated the expulsion of candidates unlikely to win asylum, such as people seeking to escape poverty in the Balkans.
Afghans have fallen somewhere in the middle, with some areas of the country considered safe and some not.
Germany has tried to convince rejected Afghan asylum seekers to leave voluntarily first by offering financial incentives.
But an agreement between Berlin and Kabul also recently paved the way for deportations.
Only 18 Afghan citizens were deported in the first half of 2016, but more than 12,500 Afghans have received orders to leave the country.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
