If My Older Brother Weren't Here, I Would Be Living on the Street, He Said, Adding That His Goal Is to Return to Germany in Afghanistan

Germany has carried out another deportation flight to Afghanistan, sending 23 Afghan nationals who were required to leave the country back to their homeland. The charter flight departed from Leipzig/Halle Airport in the early morning hours, bound for Kabul. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the majority of those deported are convicted criminals, including individuals sentenced for serious offenses such as sexual crimes and bodily harm.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had announced after a deportation at the end of July that Germany would no longer limit returns to Afghanistan to criminals and "threats, but would also deport other individuals required to leave, as agreed in the coalition agreement. On the platform X, Dobrindt wrote: "Our society has a clear interest in criminals having to leave our country. He added that anyone without a right of residence must expect to have to leave Germany.

"We are consistently implementing this course," he said. The move has drawn criticism over the federal government's arrangements with the Islamist Taliban rulers in Kabul. Green Party MP Schahina Gambir said: "Instead of standing up for human rights, this federal government is only fighting for its own deportation policy.

The German government does not recognize the Taliban, who took power in Kabul five years ago, as a legitimate government. The first collective deportation of Afghan criminals took place two years ago with support from the Gulf emirate of Qatar, when Nancy Faeser (SPD) was interior minister. One of the 31 men deported from Germany to Afghanistan at the end of July told dpa by phone that he had arrived in Germany at age 14 and had partially forgotten his native language Dari.

The deportation separated him from his wife and child. "There is no work for me here in Kabul. If my older brother weren't here, I would be living on the street, he said, adding that his goal is to return to Germany.

Afghanistan, with a population of more than 48 million, is currently in a severe humanitarian crisis. The UN World Food Programme recently warned that malnutrition has reached unprecedented levels. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), only about 33 percent of the working-age population has a job.