KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), has criticized Germany’s engagement with Taliban officials over deportations to Afghanistan as “appalling” and a violation of its international legal obligations.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ms. Abbasi stated that the move risk sending Afghans back to persecution and other serious abuses under Taliban rule.
Her comments came after Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that a three-member Taliban “technical delegation” arrived in the country in late August for talks with German officials on the deportation of Afghans.
German broadcaster NDR reported that the Taliban officials, who obtained 30-day visas from the German embassy in Qatar, are staying at the Afghan embassy in Berlin and are expected to remain in Germany for three weeks.
Germany suspended direct deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in 2021 and closed its embassy in Kabul. Berlin resumed deportations of Afghans convicted of crimes or whose asylum applications had been rejected in 2024, initially using third countries such as Qatar.
Germany later established direct contact with the Taliban and has increased deportations on direct flights to Afghanistan. It has also accepted Taliban-appointed diplomats to work at Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions in Berlin, Bonn and Munich.
Germany deported 22 Afghans on a chartered flight directly to Kabul two days ago and 30 more on August 25. About 250 Afghans have been returned since the process restarted, according to reports.
The developments come amid wider efforts in the European Union to increase the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and people convicted of crimes. Two months ago the EU hosted a Taliban delegation in Brussels to discuss arrangements for more direct deportation flights.
UN experts, European lawmakers and human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the increase in returns to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and the expansion of official contacts with the group, saying Afghanistan remains unsafe for forced returns and warning that such engagement could legitimize the Taliban despite its record of widespread human rights abuses.
