Berlin, 30 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) - For the first time since the Taliban retook power three years ago, a deportation flight to Afghanistan took off from Germany on Friday, government officials said.

"These were Afghan nationals, all of whom were convicted criminals who had no right to stay in Germany and against whom deportation orders had been issued," German government spokesman Stefan Hebestreit said.

The Qatar Airways charter jet carrying 28 Afghan men departed the Leipzig/Halle airport for Kabul at 6:56 am (0456 GMT), according to the Interior Ministry in the eastern state of Saxony.

The men had been brought from across the country to Leipzig for the flight. Sources confirmed to dpa that all the Afghan citizens aboard the flight were men and that they include sex offenders and others convicted of violent acts.

Germany does not maintain diplomatic relations with the hardline Taliban rulers in Kabul, who are accused of widespread human rights abuses, especially against women and girls.

Five more Afghans were expected on the plane

Five more people - a total of 33 - were actually supposed to have been deported on Friday, lawmakers on the parliament's Interior Committee said.

But two of those scheduled for deportation were not able to be located in time, said Manuel Höferlin, a member of parliament for the Free Democrats (FDP).

Three others were not cleared for deportation by justice authorities because, in the view of the state-level public prosecutors, they had not yet served a sufficient portion of their sentence in Germany.

Before being deported, the offenders were supposed to have served at least two-thirds of their sentence in Germany.

Scholz calls deportations a 'clear signal'

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that following a knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May, which left a police officer dead, the deportation of the most dangerous criminals and terrorist suspects to Afghanistan and Syria would be made possible again.

Individuals suspected by security authorities of being capable of the most serious politically motivated crimes, including terrorist attacks, are included in this decision.

The debate has been reignited by last week's deadly stabbings in the western city of Solingen that left three people dead. The main suspect is a 26-year-old Syrian man who is believed to have evaded a deportation order.

Der Spiegel news magazine reported that planning for Friday's deportation flight to Afghanistan had been under way for two months.

"It is a clear signal: Those who commit crimes cannot count on us not deporting, but we will try to do so, as you can see in this case," Scholz said on Friday afternoon during an election campaign event for his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) near Leipzig.

Controversy over Afghan deporations

Deportations to Afghanistan and Syria have been deeply controversial in Germany, given the abysmal human rights records of the ruling governments in both countries.

The Greens, a key coalition partner to Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), have been particularly hesitant to back such a step.

Green Party co-leader Omid Nouripour said the Taliban Islamists held views out of "The Stone Age" and that the flight "must not lead to the legitimisation of the Taliban."

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a Green, has also warned against any steps that might indirectly recognize the Taliban regime, which took power again in August 2021.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Baerbock said that deportations to Afghanistan and Syria would be "possible in individual cases," but that a decision to go through with a deportation to those countries is "obviously not trivial" given the brutal regimes in power there.

Photo: EPA