Germany deports 28 Afghans after unveiling new security package

Berlin (CNN) — A deportation flight bound for Afghanistan carrying 28 Afghan nationals left Germany on Friday morning, a day after the German government pledged to strengthen its asylum regulations in the wake of a deadly knife attack.

A spokesperson from Saxony’s Interior Ministry told CNN that a plane with the Afghans on board departed from Leipzig just before 7 a.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday afternoon. The Afghans on the flight are convicted criminals from various states across Germany who had been selected by the Interior Ministry, the spokesperson added.

Flight trackers show that a Boeing 787 from Qatar Airlines left Leipzig at 6.55 a.m., traveling to Kabul.

The flight marks Germany’s first deportation of Afghans back to their home country since the Taliban retook power there three years ago, in August 2021. According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the deportations are the result of months of negotiations and planning.

Der Spiegel reported that each deportee, all of whom were male, received a payment of €1,000 ($1,100). The spokesperson for Saxony’s Interior Ministry was unable to confirm this.

In a news conference following the flight’s departure, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit emphasized to journalists that Berlin was not in direct talks with the Taliban. Rather, it secured the deportation through the mediation of key regional powers, he said.

Hebestreit added that the German government has made “intensive efforts” to deport migrants who have committed serious crimes back to Afghanistan and Syria in the wake of a knife attack in the southwestern city of Mannheim at the end of May.

A police officer was fatally wounded during that attack and several others were injured, with German authorities pointing to an Islamist extremism motive. The main suspect was identified as a 25-year-old Afghan refugee.

The deportations also come a day after the German government unveiled a new security package following the fatal attack in the western city of Solingen last week. Three people were stabbed to death in the incident on August 23, which took place during a street festival. The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had previously been due for deportation. He turned himself in and confessed to the attack, police said.

The attack in Solingen has sparked fresh debate in Germany over migration, with the country’s governing coalition, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, receiving criticism for its handling of the issue. It has also served to embolden Germany’s far-right ahead of key state elections this weekend.

The incident spurred Scholz’s government into action, with the chancellor declaring during a visit to Solingen at the start of the week that “we will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Reuters reported.

The new security measures unveiled by the government in a news conference Thursday aim to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, and also tighten laws on weapons.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser pledged during the news conference to “step up the pace of repatriations” and “take further measures to reduce irregular migration,” while also strengthening the power of authorities to fight Islamic extremism.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is targeting wins in elections in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia scheduled for Sunday. The AfD is currently leading in the polls in both states.

The anti-immigration party has seized on the attack in Solingen in its political campaigning, with Björn Höcke, the party’s regional leader in Thuringia, telling voters they have the choice of either “Höcke or Solingen.”

Migration has long been a topic of fierce debate in Germany. Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has typically advocated for a more open migration policy in Germany.

During the 2015 European migrant crisis, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), adopted an “open-door” policy which saw hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in Syria and beyond arrive in Germany – a decision which attracted both praise and criticism.

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CNN’s Claudia Otto reported from Berlin and Sophie Tanno from London.