Germany is considering resuming deportations of criminals to Afghanistan, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

Germany stopped repatriating migrants to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021, because it does not deport people to countries where they are threatened by death.

But after an Afghan asylum-seeker was accused of fatally stabbing a police officer in Mannheim last Friday, authorities are now reconsidering this policy.

"It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany's security must be deported quickly," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters.

"I am also quite adamant that Germany's security interests clearly outweigh the interests of those affected."

"That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan," she added.

Suspect's background in the spotlight

The debate around deporting asylum-seekers to countries deemed unsafe has reignited days ahead of European Union elections in which far-right parties are expected to perform strongly.

Friday's fatal stabbing of a police officer occurred at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim.

The suspect was later identified by media as a 25-year-old man who had arrived in Germany as an asylum-seeker in March 2013.

Although he was initially refused asylum, he was not deported because he was 14 at the time, German tabloid Bild reported.

The suspect subsequently went to school and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he had two children, Spiegel reported.

Authorities reportedly did not view the suspect as a risk and his neighbors later said that he did not appear to harbor extremist beliefs.

zc/rc (dpa, AFP, Reuters, epd)

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.