He’s actually allowed to come back: This Wednesday, Omar Suleimankhil will be entering the factory hall of the board game manufacturer Ludo Fact in Jettingen-Scheppach, Bavaria. As in the past, he will stand next to the big machines and set them up so that they punch sheets of cardboard into puzzles, into game boards or into playing cards, depending on the situation. He will be called again if a machine jams or needs to be cleaned.
“A good job,” says the Afghan refugee. He also did her well for five years. Has “integrated wonderfully”, has learned German and German customs, such as the fact that the boss here can also be a woman. That’s what Ludo-Fact HR Manager Thomas Hüttenhofer says.
Omar Suleimankhil was one of the first refugees the company hired in 2014 and whom they still urgently need. “We are desperately looking for employees, including unskilled workers,” says Hüttenhofer. Nevertheless, May was over for the Afghans. The office had withdrawn his work permit and deportation was imminent. He sat around idly in the refugee home, all around him were all Arabic-speaking newcomers whom he did not understand. He slept badly, feared the future. “I hate staying home,” he says.
And now? Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban. Many people are desperately trying to leave the country. Paradoxically, however, this situation provides the Afghans in Germany with security. About 30,000 of them would actually have to return to their country because their asylum application was rejected. It is the largest group of rejected asylum seekers. But Germany is not allowed to deport to a country where their lives are in danger. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has therefore suspended all returns to Kabul – initially for three months. But even after that there shouldn’t be any new deportation flights anytime soon, after all it is not even clear whether the airport in Kabul can continue to operate.
All those who were scheduled for deportation yesterday should now continue to be tolerated. Work bans are likely to be lifted gradually. Even the otherwise restrictive Bavaria promises “easier training for Afghan nationals who are legally obliged to leave the country”, as a spokeswoman for the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior writes, given the training year that is just beginning.
The training as a possible ticket for a long-term stay
That changes everything for the Afghans. Many of them, like Omar Suleimankhil, have been in Germany for a long time and were already on the verge of being “granted residence in the event of sustainable integration” under Section 25b of the Residence Act. The authorities can issue these to people who have been living in Germany with a Duldung for eight years, speak German and earn their living on their own. But Bavaria in particular recently deported Afghans shortly before the eight-year period or withdrew their work permits in anticipation of deportation. Not any longer longer.
Omar Suleimankhil is one of the first to seize the opportunity and start training to become a plant and machine operator this Wednesday with a contract fresh from the press. For him, it’s not just about the job he needs to send money to his sick mother in Afghanistan. The training could also be his ticket for a long-term stay in Germany. There is almost no deportation from an ongoing training course. If he successfully completes it, he can then apply for a regular residence permit, says the Augsburg lawyer Maja von Oettingen, who represents him.
Training or employment is now a good way for Afghans to get a longer tolerance, believes the Munich asylum lawyer Hubert Heinhold. In addition, he also considers it possible to reopen asylum cases. Anyone who had problems with the Taliban in the past can now possibly argue even more credibly that a return would be unreasonable for them. And those who fail to prove that the Taliban are personally killing their lives can at least plead that returning to the country that is being fought over by various terrorist groups is life-threatening. “Do you really want to deport women to Afghanistan?” Asks Heinhold.
Omar Suleimankhil has also become more confident. But he is still afraid, just no longer for himself. Now worrying about the family back home robs him of sleep.