Germany considers paying criminal Afghan migrants to return home

Berlin says those convicted of violence or who pose a terror threat could be given ‘travel money’ to go back to Afghanistan

Germany is planning to pay Afghan criminals to return to their home country as it takes a tougher stance on migration.
Berlin said it intends to give convicted criminals from the South Asian country “travel money” in an effort to clear the legal hurdles preventing deportations.
Since a police officer was killed by an Afghan migrant in June, Germany has been pursuing a more hard-line policy on deportations.
The government said it would consider deporting Afghan migrants who pose a security threat.
However, the move has been controversial because Germany does not repatriate people to countries where they are threatened with death, and stopped deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021.
One legal hurdle is the argument that asylum seekers would suffer extreme poverty in their home country.
Germany’s interior ministry said that it was “examining how to create the operational and legal conditions for deportations to Afghanistan”, adding that “the payment of financial travel assistance can serve to create such legal conditions”.
How much cash will be offered will be determined by state authorities, under whose jurisdiction deportations usually fall.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, announced that he wanted to restart deportations of hardcore criminals after a 25-year-old originally from Afghanistan severely injured six people at an anti-Islam event in Mannheim. A policeman died from his injuries.
Unease about high levels of criminality among asylum seekers has seen the popularity of the anti-migrant AfD party soar over the past year, despite Mr Scholz repeatedly assuring voters that he will make deportations a priority.
Several hundred Afghans are reported to be serving sentences in German jails.
Berlin has said it would only deport criminals convicted of violence or those considered a terror threat.
The move has been criticised by rights groups, which say that deportees would face the threat of torture and abuse upon their return home.
But a report that Afghan refugees have been secretly going home for holidays has further inflamed the debate in Germany.
RTL, a broadcaster, reported in July that tourism companies were offering Afghans the opportunity to go back home via Iran.
Their entry visa to Afghanistan can be stamped on a loose piece of paper that can be discarded before they return to Germany, RTL claimed.
Joachim Stamp, Berlin’s migration commissioner, said that he was furious about the news.