Rights Groups Sue German Ministers as Pakistan Detains Afghan Evacuees

Germany’s foreign ministry said it is in high-level contact with Islamabad after Pakistani police raided a guesthouse in the capital’s F-8/2 district and detained eight Afghan families who had been cleared to resettle in Germany under the Federal Admission Program. Berlin voiced “strong concern” about the safety of more than 2,000 Afghans approved for relocation, many of whom had worked for German agencies, media outlets, or civil-society groups in Afghanistan. The incident came as advocacy groups PRO ASYL and Patenschaftsnetzwerk Ortskraefte filed a criminal complaint with Berlin prosecutors against Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. The organisations accuse the ministers of failing to protect Afghans in Pakistan from deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, arguing this constitutes abandonment under Section 221 of Germany’s penal code. According to the lawsuit, Pakistani authorities have arrested more than 400 German-approved evacuees in recent weeks and deported 34 of them, ahead of a 1 September deadline that could force more than one million Afghans to leave the country. The foreign ministry said it is working with Pakistan to secure the release of detainees and assist deportees, while the interior ministry has yet to give a timeline for restarting the suspended admission programme. Over 80 individual court cases are already challenging the government’s delays.