Germany has said it is ending a monthslong freeze on admitting vulnerable Afghans who had previously been promised entry to the country. Many of the people affected escaped the Taliban by fleeing to Pakistan, where they have been waiting for years for their German visas. DW met one such family, whose names have been changed and identities concealed for their safety.Sharif and his family live in Islamabad in constant fear of being arrested and deported to Afghanistan. Police raids on guesthouses where Afghan refugees are staying forced the family to keep moving from place to place.Before the Taliban takeover in 2021, Sharif worked in Afghanistan. When the group took Kabul, he and his family fled to Pakistan.Having previously worked for international governments, Sharif is being sought by the Taliban. Years ago, the German government had assured Afghans who had worked for the Bundeswehr, German press outlets, and human rights NGOs, that they would be admitted to the country. Sharif’s application was approved, but the process has dragged on for an agonizingly long time.“We are facing many problems here. The biggest is the risk of deportation,” Sharif said. “The police come to the refugee houses every day, and whoever they catch they take away. If we are found during a search and sent back to Afghanistan, I’m 100% sure I will be killed.”
Living in fear of deportation
More than 2,000 Afghans in Pakistan are currently waiting to travel to Germany. Pakistani police have nonetheless arrested hundreds of them and sent them back to Afghanistan.A one-month pause on deportations to allow Afghans to formalize their status in Pakistan or leave voluntarily expires Sunday. Pakistan’s government has announced that it intends to resume deportations in September. More than a million people could be affected.The constant threat puts Sharif’s family under tremendous strain. His children can’t go to school, for fear they will be discovered, and there’s no possibility for his wife to work, although she, too, has a good education.“When we arrived, our only hope was that our children could study and build a future,” Sharif’s wife said, asking that her name not be used. “But one year of our lives has already been wasted.”She said she was trying to teach her children at home. “My biggest request is that we be transferred to Germany as soon as possible,” she said. Only there will her children be able to continue their education. “I never want to return to Afghanistan,” she said. “Because there we would be killed, and the future of our children would be destroyed.”The new German government, which took office in May, determined that each individual application would be subject to a security check, even for Afghans whose permission to travel to Germany had already been guaranteed. This meant that the admission of vulnerable Afghan women and men to Germany effectively stopped.Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has rejected the accusation that the government has been playing for time. Last weekend, he commented that people couldn’t expect it to redress the failures of recent years in the space of just a few weeks. He said he had instructed colleagues to continue with the processing of applications, including security checks.“Afghans for whom the Federal Republic of Germany has been obliged by legally binding court decisions to issue visas and to grant entry will be able to enter Germany,” Dobrindt told DW.
Courts force the government to act
According to media reports, the first families are expected to arrive in Germany on scheduled flights in the coming days. This follows decisions by German administrative courts obliging the Foreign Ministry to issue visas that have been promised. If officials fail to do so, the government will have to pay a penalty. The judges made it clear that the commitments made by Germany were legally binding.“There are people in Pakistan at various stages of the emigration procedure. Screening procedures are currently restarting,” the German Foreign Ministry announced on August 26. “Staff from the relevant authorities are on the ground to resume the admissions process.”Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Caritas and Reporters Without Borders had recently been putting tremendous pressure on the German government, urging it to take action.For many of the people affected, it’s a question of survival: If they are sent back to Afghanistan, they face persecution, imprisonment or even death.
