Despite the Taliban’s advance: Seehofer wants to continue to leave Afghanistan


Status: 08/01/2021 6:47 a.m.

Interior Minister Seehofer wants to hold on to deportations to Afghanistan, despite the advance of the Taliban there. After the end of the pandemic, the number of deportations should also increase overall.

Despite the recent advance of the radical Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is sticking to deportations to the country. “We are currently negotiating with Afghanistan so that we can continue to deport criminals there,” he told “Bild am Sonntag”. “How can you answer for the fact that criminals can no longer be returned to their home country,” said Seehofer. That applies to all nationalities.

Seehofer also considered ways of “increasing voluntary departure”. If a detainee gets some part of his sentence waived, he may leave voluntarily, said the interior minister. “We are in talks with all federal states, because they are responsible for deportations,” said the CSU politician.

More deportations after the pandemic

After the end of the pandemic, Seehofer wants to significantly increase the number of deportations again. “The Corona period was not the time for deportations. Every country in the world is afraid of imported infections,” he said. “We will increase that again significantly after Corona”. Seehofer also said of “Bild am Sonntag”: “We cannot be satisfied with the fact that things are difficult. Those who do not have a right of residence have to leave the country.” Whoever gives up this principle gives up the rule of law.

With regard to the asylum policy, the Interior Minister criticized the EU Commission: “The EU Commission has dramatically lost power in the asylum policy in recent years,” he said. You have “so far not been able to find a remedy against the egoism of some EU member states”, including Austria. Reliable cooperation on migration for Germany currently only exists with France.

Criticism from the Greens

In the face of numerous offensives by the Taliban, the Greens had recently insisted on an end to deportations to Afghanistan. The federal government continues to pretend that “nothing has happened” in Afghanistan, said Greens leader Robert Habeck of the Foreign Office’s assessment of the situation in July. These would have to be revised and deportations suspended, he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.

FDP versus Greens

On the other hand, the FDP chairman Christian Lindner spoke out against a general ban on deportation to Afghanistan. “Threateners and offenders must not feel safe with us, they have to be deported from Germany to their home country,” said Lindner of the dpa news agency. He was responding to Habeck. “The motives of the Greens may be noble, but Mr. Habeck has not thought through the practical consequences for our country,” warned Lindner. “In view of the sensitive situation in Afghanistan, such statements should not send the wrong signal to the people smuggling.”

Since the start of the withdrawal of foreign troops, the Taliban have brought numerous districts under their control in Afghanistan and now rule large parts of the country.

Afghanistan: Fleeing the Taliban

Silke Diettrich, ARD New Delhi, July 14, 2021 7:49 am



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