GERMANY REVOKES RESETTLEMENT PLEDGES, LEAVING HUNDREDS OF AFGHANS STRANDED

Mon 15 December 2025:

In a dramatic policy shift, Germany’s new conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has revoked sanctuary offers to hundreds of Afghans previously promised refuge.

The 640 individuals—many former local staff for German forces during the Afghanistan occupation—who are currently waiting in Pakistan, will no longer be admitted. Merz’s administration is scrapping two resettlement schemes established under the previous centre-left government.

Merz‪ has taken a harder line on migration to fend off a stiff challenge from the far right.

The people awaiting evacuation would receive notice from Germany in the coming days “that there is no longer any political interest in their being admitted”, an interior ministry spokesperson said.

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Rights groups called the reversal a betrayal that defied several court rulings. They warned that the Afghans risked “persecution, abuse and death” if they were returned.

Karl Kopp, the head of the German NGO Pro Asyl, criticised the government’s decision as “ice cold”. He added: “The previous government promised to take these people in for one reason only: they had fought for women’s rights, human rights and freedom in Afghanistan.”

The people affected were now in acute danger and at risk of falling into the hands of the Islamist Taliban regime, he said. “For the new government, this shameful treatment of people in mortal danger is a declaration of moral bankruptcy.”

After the Taliban’s return to power four years ago, Germany’s then centre-left-led government launched programmes offering refuge to “especially endangered people” including local staff who had worked for the German military or government ministries, as well as rights activists and journalists.

Until April 2025, before Merz took office in May, about 4,000 local staff and 15,000 of their family members had been resettled in Germany, according to official data.

Since then, a few hundred Afghans have been evacuated from Pakistan but the current government has largely moved to phase out that policy, offering money to those who renounce their right to be resettled. The interior ministry said last month only 62 people had taken up the offer.

Up to 1,800 Afghans approved for relocation to Germany have been stranded in Pakistan for months, NGOs say.

More than 250 NGOs issued an open letter this week criticising the government for failing to honour Berlin’s promises to Afghans left in limbo, 70% of whom, they noted, are women and children.

Groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and religious organisations called on the government to evacuate all 1,800 people before the end of the year – the deadline announced by the Pakistani government for them to leave.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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