KABUL: Deported after years of living in Germany, 26 young Afghans arrived in Kabul Tuesday with only one thought in mind: Fleeing this war-torn country.
Escorted by 80 German police officers, their plane landed shortly after 7.30 a.m. — the second batch deported under a disputed Afghan-EU deal signed last October and aimed at curbing the influx of migrants.
“What would you have me do here? There is only death!” said 19-year-old Ramid Afshah, returning from Germany after five years, a country it had taken him six months to reach.
Airport police spokesman Mohammad Adjmal Fawzi said at least one of the 26 was “suffering” and showing signs of psychological distress, adding: “He could be brought back to Germany.”
Several of the migrants told AFP they had been arrested Monday morning at dawn and sent to Kabul with just a small piece of luggage or a backpack containing their belongings.
“The police came to pick us up yesterday morning at 4 a.m. and we were treated like animals,” said Arash Alkozai, 21.
Alkozai, who had come to Germany when he was 16, was living in Munich with his family before taking a room in the city. After leaving school he had studied auto repair, all the while learning to speak his adopted tongue “perfectly.”
“I cannot say anything negative about this country that helped me. I respect its decision but now I’m living a nightmare. I’ve left behind my three-month pregnant girlfriend, I won’t find work here and there’s no security,” he said.
Afghanistan has been battling an insurgency since a US-led coalition toppled the hard-line Taliban in late 2001.
The conflict caused some 9,000 deaths or injuries among civilians in the first nine months of 2016, according to the UN, which is to publish its annual report by the end of the month.
In 2015 the number of civilians killed or wounded was more than 11,000, the highest recorded since 2009, with children paying a particularly heavy price, according to UN figures.
Some 250 people staged a protest against the deportations at Frankfurt airport on Monday night, Sarmina Stuman of the Afghan Refugees Movement told AFP.
“Afghanistan is simply at war, which is why we are protesting against expulsions to a country like Afghanistan,” she said.
In December German interior minister Thomas de Maizière justified the expulsion of Afghans in order to preserve the “right” of asylum in the country, the only one in Europe to open its doors wide to refugees.
De Maiziere argued that Taliban attacks largely targeted “representatives of the international community” in Afghanistan and not the civilian population.
A first flight carrying 34 men arrived in Kabul in December, a third of whom had been convicted of crimes ranging from theft to homicide, according to the German authorities.
That did not appear to be the case on Tuesday, when the passengers were able to leave the airport freely.
They will be sheltered by the government for at least two weeks. After that they face an uncertain future, with Afghanistan already so overwhelmed by people fleeing fighting that officials have warned of a humanitarian crisis.
Standing just outside the airport, appearing lost in the fog and melted slush, a man called Milad said he had spent 11 years in Germany and wanted a “cigarette and a drink” before he set off in search of an uncle whose address he did know.
Told his second wish could not be fulfilled in the conservative Islamic republic, he said: “I don’t actually know this country.”
Germany sends second batch of Afghan refugees to Kabul
Germany sends second batch of Afghan refugees to Kabul
Russia and Ukraine trade attacks as US and European officials prepare for peace talks
Moscow pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure with drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Kyiv launched a deadly strike of its own on southwestern Russia, a day before talks involving senior European and US officials aimed at ending the war were set to resume.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian, US and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days, adding that he will personally meet with US President Donald Trump’s envoys.
“Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace — a political agreement to end the war,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation late Saturday.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Berlin for the talks, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American officials have tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including which combatant will get control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
“The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community,” Zelensky said. “We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee — a guarantee, above all — that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion.”
As diplomats push for peace, the war grinds on.
Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure. Zelensky said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. And with temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.
An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Kyiv and its allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The drone attack in Russia’s Saratov region damaged a residential building and killed two people, said the regional governor, Roman Busargin, who didn’t offer further details. Busragin said the attack also shattered windows at a kindergarten and clinic. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims this month that it had taken full control of the critical city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.
The latest attacks came after Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control.
Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the remaining part of the region to Russia.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan — a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
“We don’t know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren’t for the better,” Ushakov said, adding: “We will strongly insist on our considerations.”
In other developments, about 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, told The Associated Press. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat.
Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.
