A charter flight carrying 155 Afghans, who were to be granted protection in Germany, landed in Berlin on Tuesday. However, it appears that only five former local police officers were among the passengers, according to a report by the German newspaper Bild, citing government sources.
These five former police officers were accompanied by 22 close family members, who had fled to neighboring Pakistan after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The flight also carried human rights activists, a policewoman and other former government officials, as well as a journalist, the newspaper reported. More than half of the passengers were admitted to Germany under the country’s “Bundesaufnahmeprogramm” for particularly endangered people from Afghanistan, organized by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf).
A high-ranking official, involved in the process, told the newspaper, “At the Bamf, each individual case was checked before entry. Only if the Bamf concludes that there is a risk of persecution, the visa application and security checks by our authorities are carried out. If there are doubts, no visa is issued.”
The Federal Police reportedly filed criminal complaints against three of the Afghan nationals upon their arrival, as they had entered the country with so-called “proxy passports” which are documents issued by the Taliban and often not personally requested by the applicant.