Germany and the Netherlands will stop deporting Afghan migrants as Taliban surges across Afghanistan

Germany and the Netherlands will stop deporting Afghan migrants as Taliban surges across Afghanistan
Germany and the Netherlands will stop deporting Afghan migrants back to Afghanistan because of surging Taliban attacks. This announcement comes after the two countries, along with four other EU nations, wrote to the EU advocating for deportations.
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Tens of thousands of Afghans have been displaced in the country because of the Taliban's attacks, many are now living in crowded refugee camps [source: Getty]

Germany and the Netherlands said on Wednesday they have stopped forced repatriations of Afghan migrants because of deteriorating security in Afghanistan, as the Taliban pressed on with its rapid advance in the country's north.

"Due to current developments in the security situation, the interior minister has decided to suspend deportations to Afghanistan for the time being," Germany's interior ministry spokesman Steve Alter wrote on Twitter.

Separately in The Hague, Dutch State Secretary for Justice and Security Ankie Broekers-Knol announced a "moratorium on (deportation) decisions and departures."

The halt "will apply for six months and will apply to foreign nationals of Afghan nationality," she wrote in a letter to the Dutch parliament.

Wednesday's move by the Germans and Dutch marked a sharp U-turn from their previous position.

Officials had said as late as Tuesday that both governments joined their counterparts in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Greece to write to the EU's executive arm saying they should be allowed to press on with expulsions of Afghan migrants if their asylum bids fail.

Their letter asked the European Commission "to engage in an intensified dialogue with Afghan partners on all pressing migration issues including swift and effective return cooperation".

"Furthermore, stopping returns sends the wrong signal and is likely to motivate even more Afghan citizens to leave their home for the EU," said the letter, sent on August 5, which was seen by AFP.

So far this year 1,200 people had been returned to Afghanistan from the EU - with 1,000 of those being "voluntary" and 200 "forced", according to a senior EU official

Afghanistan urged the EU in July to cease forced deportations of Afghan migrants for three months as security forces battle the Taliban offensive ahead of the withdraw of foreign troops from Afghanistan on August 31. 

The hardline Islamists have in recent days made huge advances in the north, capturing territory including provincial capital Kunduz - where German soldiers had been deployed for a decade until the end of June.

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German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer voiced disappointment at the developments.

"The reports from Kunduz and from all over Afghanistan are bitter and hurt a lot," she wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s.