Berlin calls itself ‘locomotive’ of European crackdown on immigration, expelling 81 Afghans earlier than assembly.
Germany’s inside minister has hosted 5 of his European counterparts to debate methods of tightening the area’s asylum guidelines, as his nation deported 81 Afghans to their Taliban-controlled homeland.
The European Union’s immigration system wanted to be “harder and stricter”, Minister Alexander Dobrindt mentioned after Friday’s assembly in southern Germany with the inside ministers of France, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Denmark, in addition to EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner.
The cohort issued a five-page communique on their goals, which included the institution of “return hubs” for holding individuals outdoors the EU, enabling asylum procedures in third international locations, and permitting deportations to Afghanistan and Syria as normal observe.
All measures would require approval from Brussels.
“Once we analyse what has been agreed right here, it’s lofty ambitions, however not a lot element about how they intend to pursue what’s in these 5 pages,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin.
Ministers, he mentioned, had talked about “the types of issues that they agree on, however they know they’ll’t implement them themselves as unilateral choices.”
Talking after the assembly, Dobrindt mentioned, “We wished to ship a sign that Germany is not sitting within the brakeman’s cab on migration points in Europe, however is within the locomotive.”
Afghans deported
Hours earlier than the assembly, Germany demonstrated simply how critical it was about cracking down on migration by sending 81 Afghan nationals again to their homeland, prompting an outcry from rights organisations.
Amnesty Worldwide criticised the deportations, saying the state of affairs in Afghanistan was “catastrophic” and that “extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture are commonplace”.
Europe’s prime financial system had stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban motion’s return to energy in 2021.
However Berlin resumed expulsions final 12 months when the earlier authorities of Olaf Scholz expelled 28 convicted Afghans.
Present Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the expulsions of the 81 Afghan males, saying he was “grateful” to have the ability to ship on guarantees made when getting into authorities in Could.
None of these deported “had a residence standing any extra. All asylum purposes have been legally rejected with out additional authorized recourse”, he mentioned at a information convention.
Bavaria state’s Inside Minister Joachim Herrmann mentioned 15 of the deported Afghans had been incarcerated for crimes, together with homicide and manslaughter, sexual offences and property crimes.
The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg mentioned 13 Afghans deported from there had been jailed for crimes together with murder, bodily hurt, drug offences and critical arson.
Within the wake of the announcement, the United Nations mentioned nobody must be despatched again to Afghanistan, no matter their standing.
The UN human rights commissioner known as for an “fast halt to the forcible return of all Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers”, highlighting the dangers confronted by returnees.