BERLIN: Germany may be close to finalising a deal with the Taliban government in Afghanistan for more regular deportation flights, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in an interview published on Saturday.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in power since May, has promised to speed up expulsions of Afghan asylum seekers who have been found guilty of crimes in Germany. But the returns are controversial because Berlin does not recognise the Taliban administration in Kabul.

Dobrindt told the online news site The Pioneer that discussions about more frequent flights were at a “very advanced” stage.

“So, we can assume that we will have an agreement very soon. We want to carry out regular deportations and that does not only mean using charter flights but also by commercial flights,” he added.

Germany has made two deportation flights of convicted Afghans since 2021: 81 were returned in July this year and 28 last year. The charter flights were organised by Qatar in a mediating role.

Germany’s interior ministry announced last month that direct discussions were taking place with the Taliban authorities. Ministry staff last weekend held “technical discussions” with officials in Kabul to organise deportation flights, Dobrindt said.

The conservative minister said he “will do everything to make it work”, including going to the Afghan capital, adding that he wanted to “try the same thing with Syria”.

Like a number of European countries, Germany announced a freeze on asylum applications of Syrian nationals after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

Merz is banking on a tougher immigration policy to combat the rise of the far right in Germany, which is neck-and-neck with the conservatives in recent opinion polls.

‘German representatives visit Kabul’

According to information shared on Germany’s public broadcaster ARD, at least one high-ranking representative of the Federal Ministry of the Interior had visited Kabul to discuss the next steps in repatriating Afghan criminals in Germany.

According to ARD, the exchange between the two sides had “gone well and positively” from the Afghan point of view.

The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel meanwhile reported that the Interior Ministry was in fact close to concluding a deportation deal with the Taliban, having sent two representatives to Kabul in early October, citing its own sources.

This alleged deal builds on a basic agreement that had been reached with the Taliban government last month.

Talks viewed critically

Such talks with the Taliban are regarded as highly controversial, as the German government officially refuses to have diplomatic relations with the Taliban, who came back to power in Afghanistan via a violent takeover in August 2021.

Opposition parties in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of Parliament, have highlighted their view that entering any such deals with the Taliban would make Germany more dependent on the radical Islamist regime of the country.

Since the Taliban returned to power, there have only been two deportation flights from Germany to the Central Asian country so far, with the most recent one transporting 81 Afghans.

The flights were facilitated by the government of Qatar, but if Dobrindt’s deal goes according to plan, deportation flights could occur more frequently, and without the help of such a third party.

The Islamist regime is internationally isolated, especially in the West, as most countries refuse to accept the legitimacy of their leadership on account of their disregard for human rights — especially women’s rights.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025