For the first time since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan three years ago, this in the morning, a plane with deported Afghans took off from the German airport Leipzig/Halle, the regional Ministry of the Interior announced, quoted by DPA, BTA reported.
Charter plane of airline "Qatar Airways" with 28 Afghan criminals brought from various German provinces, took off from Leipzig, the largest city in the state of Saxony, to Kabul at 6:56 a.m. (7:56 a.m. Bulgarian time). The federal government is under pressure to crack down after a deadly Islamic State-linked knife attack at a festival in the city of Solingen a week ago and after an Afghan man fatally stabbed a German police officer in an attack in June, notes Reuters.
Magazine "Spiegel“ announced that the flight to deport 28 convicted criminals was made possible after months of secret negotiations with mediator Qatar. In its statement, the government in Berlin thanked "key regional partners" for their support and added that more such deportations are being carried out. Berlin has suspended the return of people to Afghanistan over human rights concerns after the Taliban return to power in 2021.
The operation was organized by the Federal Ministry of the Interior of Germany, DPA said. Germany does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban in Kabul.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that after the deadly knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May, the deportation of the most dangerous criminals and terror suspects to Afghanistan and Syria will once again be possible. This decision affects people suspected by the security authorities of being capable of committing the most serious politically motivated crimes, including terrorist attacks. The debate has reignited since last week's deadly knife attack in the western city of Solingen, in which three people were killed. The perpetrator of the attack is a 26-year-old Syrian who evaded a deportation order to Bulgaria last year, the Associated Press notes.