Germany to continue deporting Afghans who pose threat, conceal identity, says foreign ministry

Berlin: The German government said on Thursday it will continue to deport people to Afghanistan if they are considered a threat, have committed crimes or persistently refuse to reveal their identity. [caption id=“attachment_799455” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The government earlier had said it would consider each deportation on a case-by-case basis following Wednesday’s deadly attack in Kabul, which raised fresh questions about security in the country. The German embassy was badly damaged in the attack, which killed at least 90 people in the Afghan capital. The partial suspension of deportations will continue until Germany’s foreign ministry issues a revised security assessment for Afghanistan in July. The foreign ministry said voluntary returns would continue, as would the deportation of convicted criminals, people deemed a “terrorist threat” and “rejected asylum-seekers who persistently refuse to reveal their identity.” Germany cancelled a plane that was to take deportees to Kabul following Wednesday’s attack. That same day, nine police officers were injured in a violent protest enforcing the deportation of an Afghan student in the southeastern city of Nuremberg. Police were attempting to detain the 20-year-old man when hundreds of fellow students organised a spontaneous attempt to block his deportation. Tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing the conflict in their home country have sought asylum in Germany in recent years. Germany has granted asylum to almost 60 percent of Afghan applications, a rate that is significantly higher than in other European Union countries.