Germany has deported 13 Afghan nationals to Kabul on a charter flight, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, marking the latest removal of Afghan citizens under Berlin’s policy of deporting convicted foreign offenders.
The Interior Ministry said all 13 individuals had received final deportation orders and had criminal convictions in Germany. According to ministry spokespersons, the offenses included sexual crimes, violent assault, drug trafficking and other serious criminal offenses.
The deportation flight landed in Kabul on Tuesday after German authorities coordinated the return through a charter operation. Officials described the deportees as individuals who had exhausted legal avenues to remain in Germany and were considered convicted offenders subject to removal.
The latest flight is part of Germany’s broader effort to resume deportations to Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. German authorities have argued that individuals convicted of serious crimes should not be allowed to remain in the country, even as Afghanistan remains a country where Germany has suspended ordinary deportations for most asylum seekers.
The Interior Ministry said 263 Afghan nationals have been deported since Germany’s current governing coalition took office, adding that nearly all of them had criminal records. Berlin has increasingly distinguished between humanitarian protection for vulnerable Afghans and deportations of individuals convicted of serious crimes.
Pro Asyl, one of Germany’s leading refugee advocacy organizations, has cited parliamentary data showing that around 13,000 Afghan nationals were under orders to leave Germany at the end of 2025. Roughly 10,000 of them held “Duldung” status, a temporary suspension of deportation that allows individuals to remain in Germany while their removal cannot be carried out.
Germany has maintained that humanitarian admissions for Afghans facing persecution remain separate from the deportation policy targeting convicted offenders. However, rights organizations continue to argue that Afghanistan’s human rights situation and restrictions imposed by the Taliban make returns unsafe, even for people ordered deported after criminal convictions.
The deportation comes as several European governments have intensified efforts to remove foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes, while continuing to debate the legal and humanitarian implications of returns to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
