RASC News Agency: German media outlets have reported that the Taliban have seized control of vast amounts of highly sensitive data belonging to Afghanistani citizens including civil activists, political dissidents, and asylum seekers after taking over the Afghanistani Consulate in the German city of Bonn. Experts warn that the exposure of such classified information could have severe security and humanitarian consequences, placing thousands of Afghanistani nationals who fled persecution under the Taliban’s rule at serious risk.
According to a detailed report by Tagesschau, this alarming development occurred after the German government failed to prevent the transfer of the consulate’s control to Taliban-appointed representatives, despite repeated warnings from Afghanistani diplomats and human rights defenders. The report underscores what critics describe as a grave diplomatic misjudgment by Berlin one that effectively handed the Taliban access to a crucial database of Afghanistani nationals residing across Europe.
Since early October 2025, a man identified as Qari Sayed Mustafa, appointed by the Taliban as a “diplomat,” reportedly entered the consulate building in Bonn’s Oxdorf district, accompanied by several other Taliban affiliates. In protest, Hamed Nangyali Kabiri, the former Afghanistani consul general, along with twenty-two staff members, resigned en masse and vacated the building. Kabiri had previously emphasized that the Bonn consulate maintained “administrative independence” following the fall of Kabul and had not shared any documentation or digital data with the Taliban. He stated that all official records and equipment were to be handed over to Germany’s Federal Foreign Office for protection.
However, Tagesschau reports that Mustafa’s mission extends far beyond standard consular duties. His assignment, according to sources, is to “harmonize” the consulate’s operations with the Taliban’s ideological and political agenda an effort critics say transforms what was once a diplomatic office into a potential intelligence and propaganda base. Experts told the outlet that the Bonn Consulate had served as a central data hub for Afghanistani diplomatic missions across Europe, Canada, and Australia. This archive contained vast official information, including passport records, identification documents, marriage and birth certificates, and thousands of classified files.
The Taliban’s access to this sensitive data has triggered international alarm. Analysts warn that such data could now be exploited by the Taliban’s intelligence wing a body infamous for systematic surveillance, abductions, and intimidation of families linked to political opponents or civil activists within Afghanistan. Tagesschau cautioned that the exposure of these data sets could lead to reprisals against relatives of exiled Afghanistani dissidents, placing entire families in jeopardy.
The report further revealed that Germany’s Foreign Ministry was fully aware of these risks months before the takeover. Two confidential letters copies of which were obtained by ARD television network show that Afghanistani diplomats had, in February and July 2025, explicitly warned Berlin that “transferring control of the Bonn Consulate to the Taliban could have catastrophic consequences for the safety of Afghanistani asylum seekers in Europe.” Despite these warnings, the ministry has refrained from offering a clear explanation, merely stating that it “remains in contact with Afghanistan’s representatives” and has advised them to continue using the title of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Following the Taliban’s seizure, a new consulate website was launched its design mirroring the Taliban-controlled Foreign Ministry portal in Kabul. The emblem and title of the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” have been removed entirely, replaced by the Taliban’s insignia, signaling an attempt to extend the group’s extremist identity beyond Afghanistani borders and into the heart of Europe.
Diplomatic sources in Berlin confirmed that Taliban representatives entered the consulate building on German Unity Day, accompanied by Asif Abdullah, a diplomat from the Afghanistani Embassy in Berlin, and four others. These sources disclosed that Germany’s acceptance of Taliban envoys in both Bonn and Berlin was part of an informal, behind-the-scenes arrangement between German authorities and the Taliban an arrangement reportedly tied to cooperation in the deportation of Afghanistani asylum seekers in exchange for limited diplomatic engagement.
The exposure of sensitive Afghanistani data has now provoked outrage among rights organizations and Afghanistani communities across Europe. Critics argue that by allowing the Taliban a group internationally condemned for brutality, censorship, and gender apartheid to operate diplomatic offices on German soil, Berlin has endangered vulnerable Afghanistani refugees and undermined its own human rights commitments.
Observers note that this incident reflects a broader failure of Western governments to safeguard the rights of Afghanistani citizens fleeing Taliban repression. Instead of protecting them, policies of appeasement and negligence have, in some cases, delivered their personal data directly into the hands of their persecutors.
