German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has called for an agreement with the Taliban to receive Afghan convited criminals deported from Germany.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan's government in August 2021 following the NATO withdrawal. Since then, Germany has not had official diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, which it did not recognize as legitimate.

Last year, Germany flew Afghans who had been convicted with crimes to Afghanistan. The deportation took place after secret negotiations with mediator Qatar.

What did Dobrindt say?

"My idea is that we make agreements directly with Afghanistan to enable repatriations," Dobrindt said in an interview with the German magazine Focus.

"We still need third parties to conduct talks with Afghanistan. This cannot remain a permanent solution," he added. 

Dobrindt is a politician from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU.

Why now?

With the rise of the far right in Germany, migration was a central topic in the CSU and CDU's election campaign in the February general election.

Merz has vowed to deport people to Afghanistan and Syria, and suspend asylum admission programs for German agencies' former local staff in Afghanistan.

Dobrindt said Germany was also in contact with Syria for a deal on deporting criminals of Syrian nationality.