Germany deports 40 Afghan offenders to Kabul on charter flight from Leipzig
A charter flight from Leipzig/Halle has taken 40 convicted Afghan men to Kabul, bringing deportations in the current legislative term to 303. Interior Minister Dobrindt called them a regular part of policy.
Archive image · Photo: Molch-Entertainment / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Germany has again deported convicted offenders to Afghanistan. A charter flight carrying 40 Afghan men left Leipzig/Halle Airport on Wednesday and landed in Kabul, the Interior Ministry said. All on board were men who had committed crimes in Germany, the ministry said, including convictions for manslaughter, rape, child sexual abuse, assault and drug dealing.
Ten of Germany's 16 states took part, including Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Saxony. The flight brings the number of Afghan men deported since the start of the current legislative term to 303. "Criminals must leave our country," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Bild newspaper, calling returns to Afghanistan a "regular and reliable part of our migration policy."
Germany carried out its first group deportation since the Taliban takeover in 2021 in 2024, with help from Qatar. Since February 2026, federal police have flown directly to Kabul under an arrangement with the Taliban. Last weekend, hundreds of people protested against deportations at several German airports.