Two flights meant to carry Afghans to Germany will not go ahead as planned this week, a government spokesman said Wednesday amid a growing row over the initiative.
Berlin has been periodically flying in Afghans deemed at risk of persecution and those who worked for German institutions, since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
But calls have grown louder to halt the flights since the conservative CDU/CSU alliance won an election in February, promising a radical crackdown on irregular migration.
Four flights carrying Afghans have landed in Germany since the election, and the state of Saxony announced last week that two further flights were planned for April 23 and 29.
However, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer on Wednesday said that “as things stand at present, no further flights are planned in the next two weeks.”
“Flight planning is always very complex and depends on a wide variety of factors, including whether enough people from the admission programmes have successfully completed the visa process,” Fischer said.
Germany’s incoming government, a coalition between the conservatives and the centre-left SPD due to take office on May 6, has pledged to end the flights from Afghanistan as part of plans to curb migration.
The CDU/CSU of future chancellor Friedrich Merz has heavily criticised the outgoing government for continuing to operate the flights since the election.
“We don’t want any more flights from Afghanistan to Germany. We want criminals and dangerous individuals flown back to Afghanistan,” said senior CDU lawmaker Jens Spahn.
The German foreign ministry said last week that around 2,600 vulnerable people from Afghanistan were still waiting in Pakistan to be admitted to Germany.
These include former staff of German institutions and their relatives as well as human rights campaigners, lawyers or journalists.
The run-up to Germany’s election was marked by a bitter debate on migration, with the far-right AfD making major gains after a series of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
The suspects arrested after several attacks, including a stabbing spree and a car-ramming, were Afghan asylum seekers.
Support for the AfD has continued to rise since the election, with several recent surveys showing it as Germany’s most popular party.
