34 deported Afghan asylum seekers return from Germany

KABUL: A group of 34 Afghan asylum seekers arrived in Kabul on Thursday after being deported from Germany, the first such batch to be sent back after their applications were rejected.

The Afghans arrived on a chartered flight from Frankfurt, following an Afghan-German deal earlier this year aimed at curbing the influx of migrants into the European nation.

“Another group of 50 Afghan asylum seekers are to be deported by the end of December or early January,” said Islamuddin Jurat, spokesman for the Afghan ministry of refugees.

Jurat added that around 10,000 Afghans had already returned from Europe this year, even as the security situation worsens in the country amid an escalating Taliban insurgency.

The Afghans were flown to Kabul on Thursday despite protests against the deportations in Germany, local media reported.

Germany received 890,000 asylum requests in 2015 mostly from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq -- although that rate slowed to 213,000 from January to September 2016 following a deal with Turkey and a series of border closures on the Balkan route.

Public anger about the refugee arrivals has been stoked in Germany by some high-profile crimes involving migrants.

A teenage Afghan asylum seeker was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of the rape and murder of a 19-year-old female student in Germany.

During the last New Year’s Eve celebrations, hundreds of women reported sexual assaults in Cologne and other German cities, with the attacks blamed largely on Arab and North African men.