Dozens
of Afghans uprooted from Germany, Sweden and Norway as EU accord allowing
deportation of Afghan asylum seekers comes into play
By Sune
Engel Rasmussen
 |
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Asylum seekers expelled
to Afghanistan from European countries including Germany,
Norway and Sweden arrive
at Kabul airport. Photograph: Sune Engel Rasmussen
for the Guardian
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Dozens of asylum seekers were expelled from
Europe to Afghanistan this week, the first to be affected by a controversial
migration deal that allows the EU to deport unlimited numbers of rejected
Afghan asylum seekers.
A plane carrying 34 Afghans from Germany
touched down in Kabul before dawn on Thursday. On another, earlier in the week,
13 Afghans were forcibly returned from Sweden in a deportation that reportedly
cost about $150,000 (£120,000). That flight also carried nine Afghan citizens
from Norway
For Matiullah Aziz, 22, the deportation ended
a seven-year stay in Germany. It came without warning. Aziz said police came to
the pizza parlour where he worked, told him to pack his things and detained him
the same evening. A fluent German speaker, he carried certificates showing
that, though not granted asylum, he had studied in the country for several
years.
The chartered plane was meant to transport 50
asylum seekers, the maximum allowed on each flight according to the agreement,
but 16 were removed from the flight list shortly before take-off, reportedly
due to psychiatric issues and last-minute legal intervention.
On Wednesday, demonstrators gathered in
Frankfurt airport and German politicians protested in parliament by brandishing
placards demanding an end to the deportations.
The German government plans to deport roughly
12,500 Afghans. The next chartered flight to Kabul is believed to be scheduled
for early January.
Norway has stepped up forced returns, with
unaccompanied minors allegedly among those affected.
Imran Sakhel, who was deported this week
after more than a year in Norway, said the authorities doubted the veracity of
documents that state he is 17.
For European countries, deportations are
partly an attempt to deter migrants. Nearly 200,000 Afghans applied for asylum
in Europe last year, most in Germany and Sweden.
However, the men who landed in Kabul on
Thursday were not recent arrivals to Europe. Everyone the Guardian spoke to had
lived in Germany for at least four years. They now returned to a country that
has become more dangerous since they left.
“I lived like a German. I had an apartment, I
paid my taxes,” said Zabiullah Noori, 23. When he left his home in Kunduz six
years ago, the city was peaceful. Since then, it has fallen twice to the
Taliban. The highway there is beset by fighting and sporadic insurgent
checkpoints.
“I’m very afraid. Look at my clothes,” Noori
said. Like most of the returnees adjusting to Kabul in the early morning
darkness, he would stand out as soon as he left the airport in his European
attire of sneakers, skinny jeans and leather jacket.
“I don’t know how to get to Kunduz. If the
Taliban stop the car and see my documents, they will cut off my head,” Noori
said.
The returnees said German authorities had not
given them financial assistance. In Kabul, the International Organisation for
Migration gave them 1,500 Afghanis (£18) for onward travel, and offered
temporary accommodation.
Afghanistan is already straining under the
weight of close to a million people returned or deported from Pakistan and Iran
this year, according to the UN. The deportations from Europe are likely to
compound unemployment and the economic crisis. Most returning migrants simply
leave again.
Young men who have spent half a decade or
more in Europe, and perhaps lived in Iran or Pakistan before that, often have
nothing to return to in Afghanistan, said Abdul Ghafoor, director of the
Afghanistan Migrants Advice and Support Organisation.
“It is not safe for those who have been
deported to go back to their provinces. Most of them don’t have families here,”
he said.
Returning to Afghanistan “is a major shock to
the system if you’re not cushioned by family”, said Liza Schuster, a
Kabul-based migration expert.
“From what I’ve seen, about 80% leave within
the first two years. The rest leave within the next five,” she said, adding
that her research is based on samples. “The problem is, if they’re sent back
against their will, they haven’t been able to put any support structure in
place.”
“What’s lacking here is anything to anchor
Afghans,” Schuster said. “So until the government creates the chance to get a
good education and have some kind of future afterwards, not all, but a
significant minority are simply waiting to go.”
As the sun rose over Kabul international
airport, Noor Jan, 23, stepped outside to light a cigarette. Before the German
police handcuffed him and took him to the airport, he had spent four years in
Germany and, prior to that, four in Greece.
“You tell me, what I should do now,” he said.
