2021
2024
Remember those chaotic scenes back in 2021 when the US completed the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Remember all those Afghans trying to climb onto the US Air Force plane as it taxied to takeoff? (Not to mention the 13 Americans who died in the process when a terrorist set off a bomb in the crowd).
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have made their way to Europe as so-called refugees and asylum-seekers running for their lives lest they be killed by the Taliban. Yet, today, it is revealed that at least in Germany, hundreds of Afghans are flying back home for vacations! And they are doing it illegally, since, after all, they are seeking asylum from Afghanistan, right?
Below is the translation from German of an article in the conservative German blog, Junge Freiheit. It describes an investigation by the RTL news magazine, Extra. Translation is by Fousesquawk.
New research
Hundreds of Afghan Asylum seekers go home on vacation -every week
Germany 15 August 2024
They flee from Afghanistan because of the terrible conditions, they like to say. Now it is known. Many of the apparent refugees are still traveling home on vacation. Interior Minister Faeser knows nothing.
Berlin. German travel agencies are apparently helping Afghan asylum seekers to be able to take illegal home-country vacations. Only via Hamburg, hundreds of Afghans with so-called "blue passports" reportedly fly weekly to their home country via Turkey and Iran, said a travel agency employee to the RTL news magazine, "Extra". The "blue passport" serves as a substitute for the passport from the country of origin; their (holders) actually cannot fly to their home (countries).
According to research by the TV station, the Afghans and the involved travel bureaus reportedly apply for the so-called "double-entry" visas at the Iranian embassy. These enable travel to the Taliban-governed country with a stop-over in Iran. This is what travelers list as their only destination to German authorities. The visas stamped by the German border authorities are then attached to the passports as loose sheets of paper rather than be stuck on as normal. Then they can be disposed of upon reentering Germany in order to disguise Afghanistan as the country of destination. Asylum-seekers from Afghanistan have also flown to their home country via Turkey.
Federal Interior Minister knows nothing about Iranian visas for Afghans
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) denies responsibility. "It is not our task, rather the local immigration authorities to make sure that something like this doesn't happen," she explained to RTL. At the same time, the department will "look at" the issue. When asked, her spokesperson stated in writing that the exact numbers of illegal home country vacations are "not statistically recorded".
Clear criticism came from the Federal Police Union. "For me, it is mysterious how a visa inserted into a passport can be valid," said the chairman, Heiko Teggatz. "If you drive to Austria and have to buy an autobahn vignette, you have to attach it to the windshield and not simply lay it on the dashboard."
No comments:
Post a Comment