RASC News Agency: In one of the most controversial policy announcements in recent months, Germany’s former Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has declared that Berlin is prepared to enter into limited cooperation with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to facilitate the deportation of Afghanistani migrants with criminal records. The statement, made during an interview with Germany’s Welt TV, comes despite the fact that Berlin has not formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Dobrindt emphasized that Germany’s national security interests justify engaging with what he referred to as the “de facto authorities” in Kabul. “Our responsibility is first and foremost to the safety of the German people,” he said, “and that includes the removal of dangerous individuals even if this requires coordination with the Taliban.”
Observers believe this signals a shift toward political pragmatism, where public pressure for domestic security begins to outweigh the traditional emphasis on international human rights. While interaction with the Taliban is widely viewed by international institutions as problematic, Berlin appears to be framing this engagement as strictly operational and “low-level” to minimize political fallout. The first instance of such cooperation occurred in August 2024, when 28 Afghanistani nationals convicted of crimes and denied residency were deported from Germany to Kabul via Qatari mediation. Qatar, having long played a back-channel role between the West and the Taliban, facilitated the transfer. Now, Berlin seems poised to institutionalize this approach.
This development has triggered deep concerns among legal experts and human rights organizations. Many warn that deporting individuals even those with criminal convictions into Taliban-controlled territory exposes them to torture, extrajudicial punishment, or even execution. Afghanistan under Taliban rule remains a country where due process is non-existent and repression is routine. Critics argue that this cooperation, no matter how limited, risks conferring legitimacy on a regime that has systematically dismantled human rights and democratic norms. Since taking power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed draconian restrictions on women, eliminated independent media, crushed civil society, and reinstated public floggings and executions.
While the German government continues to insist that it does not formally recognize the Taliban, this emerging policy trend may serve as a troubling model for how other Western democracies approach unrecognized but powerful regimes. As deportations continue and the Taliban deepen their authoritarian rule, the broader cost of such engagement both humanitarian and political may prove far more dangerous than anticipated.
