Germany is negotiating with Uzbekistan to conclude a migration pact that may include the deportation of Afghan refugees, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. Such an agreement would allow Berlin to avoid direct arrangements with the Taliban.
At the end of May 2024, a German delegation, on behalf of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, visited Tashkent to hold talks on this issue. According to the proposed plan, the Uzbek government would accept a limited number of Afghan refugees who were denied asylum and deported from Germany, then send them to Afghanistan via a private airline operating flights to Kabul.
Sources say the Uzbek government is considering this idea but wants the migration pact to also include an agreement allowing for the start of legal labor migration from Uzbekistan to Germany.
According to Bloomberg, Germany's special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, will soon travel to Uzbekistan to continue the negotiations.
In early June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised to tighten migration policies, including for asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Syria, after an Afghan refugee attacked a German police officer. The incident occurred on May 31 during a rally by the Pax Europa organization, which criticizes Islam. The officer received several stab wounds to the head and died in the hospital.
Germany completely halted deportations to Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban returned to power in the summer of 2021.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
June 19, 2024