Germany Suspends Deportations to Afghanistan Amid Worsening Security Situation There
11:52 GMT 11.08.2021 (Updated: 12:32 GMT 11.08.2021)
© AFP 2023 / BERND THISSEN
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This comes as the Taliban* has captured nine out of 34 Afghan provincial capitals following the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the country.
Germany has suspended deportations to Afghanistan amid the worsening security situation there, the country's Interior Minister's spokesman Steve Alter said.
"Taking into consideration security developments, the federal minister of the interior made a decision to suspend [refugee] deportation to Afghanistan," Alter wrote on Twitter.
Der #Bundesinnenminister hat aufgrund der aktuellen Entwicklungen der Sicherheitslage entschieden, #Abschiebungen nach #Afghanistan zunächst auszusetzen.
— Steve Alter (@BMISprecher) August 11, 2021
Earlier, the Netherlands suspended deportations to the country for six months.
The move contradicts the previously-made announcement by the EU that deportations of failed Afghan asylum seekers should continue despite Kabul asking them to stop until October.
Ministers from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands and Denmark said that stopping deportations would "motivate even more Afghan citizens to leave their home".
In a letter to the European Commission, the cabinet ministers said that there were 4.6 million Afghans who had already been displaced by the conflict and 570,000 asylum applications from the country have been filed in the EU since 2015.
Letter from 🇧🇪🇩🇪🇦🇹🇳🇱🇬🇷🇩🇰 to 🇪🇺 Commission concerning migration from 🇦🇫 as Taliban hostilities intensify & the three month stop on forced returns to the country.
— Kmlvrmln (@kmlvrmln) August 9, 2021
'Stopping returns sends the wrong signal and is likely to motivate even more 🇦🇫 citizens to leave their home.' pic.twitter.com/Q79Fhvna9w
The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated since May, when the US announced that it will pull out its forces by the end of August, bringing its nearly 20-year-long military operation in the country to an end. The Taliban* has already seized nine out of 34 Afghan provinces, and, according to the Washington Post, the capital Kabul may fall to the extremist group sooner than previous US intelligence reports suggested.
*Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia.
