Asylum seekers in Germany secretly holidaying in their home country

Afghan asylum seekers in Germany are going on secret holidays back to the war-torn country despite claiming they fled persecution.

Rogue travel agents are offering package holidays to Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, even though the country is deemed unsafe, the German broadcaster RTL reported.

An Afghan refugee camp at the US military base in Ramstein, Germany in 2021, after the US exit from Kabul.Credit: AFP

Germany has taken in around 300,000 refugees from Afghanistan, which has been under the rule of the Taliban since the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021.

If asylum seekers in Germany are caught travelling back to the country from which they fled, they risk being stripped of their protected status.

Afghanistan is considered so dangerous by Germany that it does not deport criminals back there, for fear their human rights will be abused.

But according to RTL’s documentary, there is a strong appetite among some Afghans who have claimed asylum in Germany to go back for discreet short trips, breaching German asylum laws.

The Afghans can make the trips without alerting German authorities by using a double-entry visa, a card folded inside the passport that can be discarded upon returning to Germany.

According to RTL’s report, travel agents based in Hamburg, including some with links to Iran, help the Afghans to carry out the trips, where they can check in on friends and family they left behind.

The report has angered Joachim Stamp, the German federal government commissioner for migration.

“I’m furious: We are working tirelessly to bring more order to migration. The lack of consistency here is ruining a lot of things. Germany must remain cosmopolitan, but not stupid,” he said.

He added: “The authorities must ensure that people who have applied for protection with us but are on holiday in their home country immediately lose their protection status and can no longer stay in Germany. Period.”

A spokesman for the interior ministry in Hamburg told the Bild newspaper: “Travel to the alleged country of persecution naturally also calls into question the protection status. If there are easily accessible travel routes to Afghanistan, there is also the possibility of repatriation.”

The disclosure comes amid a tense debate in Germany about how to speed up the process of deporting foreigners who commit severe crimes in the country.

In May, an Afghan asylum seeker fatally stabbed a police officer in Mannheim as he attempted to murder a far-right activist who was giving a speech in the area.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, responded by vowing to reform and speed up German legal procedures for deporting Afghan and Syrian criminals.

As part of those reforms, the German government has opened discreet negotiations with the Taliban and the Assad regime.

Telegraph, London

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