A plane carrying 155 Afghans, who are part of resettlement programs, is expected to land in Berlin today. The recent cancellation of two planned flights, following a report of an attack by Afghans, had raised concerns.
In 2021, after the withdrawal of German and US troops from Afghanistan, the German government had pledged to accept Afghan collaborators, known as local forces, in Germany. This commitment was made to over 48,000 individuals, with 36,000 already brought to Germany.
However, irregularities in visa issuance for Afghans had been reported, including a directive from the Foreign Office to the Islamabad embassy to grant visas even with forged passports and doubts about the identity of the applicant.
According to a report, the genuinely endangered individuals are in a precarious situation in Pakistan, as Pakistan would like to be rid of the Afghan refugees and only issues three-month visas. Approximately 3,000 Afghans are currently waiting in Islamabad for the flight that will take them to Germany.
In Germany, public sentiment is more focused on flights in the opposite direction, namely the deportation of Afghan criminal offenders from Germany. The perpetrator of the Munich attack on February 13 was an Afghan asylum seeker who will eventually be deported to Afghanistan after serving his sentence.
The German Interior Ministry, led by Nancy Faeser, had temporarily suspended the evacuation flights due to public debate over the issue of deporting Afghan criminal offenders. The fear of a negative public reaction was a concern at the time. However, with the election now over, such concerns seem to have subsided.