- Germany authorized a Taliban technical support team to enter the country to coordinate and increase deportations of Afghan nationals.
- Government said the team will help provide consular services for roughly 450,000 Afghan nationals in Germany and assist return operations.
- Representatives are not accredited diplomats, face security checks, and will leave after a short stay.
- Move aligns with Chancellor Friedrich Merz's tougher migration stance; deportations reportedly focused on criminals but included some non-convicted Afghans and drew human rights criticism.
The German government said on Monday that it had authorised a team of Taliban government representatives to enter Germany to coordinate more deportations of Afghan nationals.
“We have approved the short-term entry of a technical support team,” a foreign ministry spokesman told a press conference in Berlin, with the stated goal of “increasing the number of deportations to Afghanistan”.
“It is in our interest that Afghan representations are able to provide consular services for the roughly 450,000 Afghan nationals in Germany and contribute in particular to return operations,” he said.
He added that the representatives were subject to a “security check”, were “not accredited diplomats in Germany” and would leave the country “after a short stay”.
After taking in a large number of refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, Berlin has toughened its migration policy under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hopes to stave off the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Merz’s government said that deportations to Afghanistan would focus on criminals, but last week 23 Afghan men were deported, among them some who had not been convicted of any crime.
Human rights organisations strongly criticise deportations to Afghanistan, where the Taliban are accused of severe human rights abuses.
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