Afghan migrants exploit loophole to holiday at home
Afghan migrants living in Germany claim they are not safe at home, yet they often return to their homeland for holidays.
German travel agencies are helping Afghan asylum seekers travel illegally to their home countries and back to Germany. Hundreds of Afghans return home every week via Turkey and Iran, starting from Hamburg, according to an employee of a travel agency who spoke to German TV channel RTL’s Extra programme.
Social media is increasingly showing content of Afghans living in Germany regularly returning to their homeland for holidays, despite claiming asylum on the grounds that they are not safe in Afghanistan. These individuals are living off German taxpayers’ money. Last year, Germany hosted around 400,000 Afghan nationals, of whom approximately 60,000 possess so-called „blue passports.” These special travel documents are issued to asylum seekers or refugees recognised in Germany and replace their original national passports. The blue passports indicate that holders are not allowed to enter the country from which they fled. Some Afghan nationals, who hold German residence permits, still travel with their Afghan passports.
However, with the help of Iranian authorities, travel agencies and travellers are exploiting a loophole: the use of double-entry visas that permit travel to Afghanistan via Iran. For example, when entering and leaving German airports, German authorities are given Iran as the declared destination. The actual travel itinerary might be: Hamburg-Tehran-Kabul-Tehran-Hamburg.
To deceive
deceive German authorities, the visas are not stamped in the passport as usual; instead, they are attached to a separate sheet of paper. Consequently, the stamp does not appear on the blue passport but only on the detachable paper, which the Afghans can discard before boarding their return flights to Germany. This ensures that Afghanistan remains hidden as their actual destination when re-entering Germany. In most cases, German authorities are completely unaware of this practice.
When asked if the federal interior ministry was aware of these return journeys, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told RTL that
„It is not our job, but the job of the local immigration authorities to prevent this.”
Thorsten Frei, vice-president of the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union) parliamentary group on home affairs and justice, sharply criticised the interior ministry’s lack of concern, stating that it indicated a disinterest in recording accurate data and a failure to address the problem.
Heiko Teggatz, president of the Federal Police Union, also strongly criticised the interior minister: „It is incomprehensible to me how a visa that is not stamped in the passport, but printed on a disposable piece of paper, can be valid at all.” Mr. Teggatz further questioned how thorough checks are conducted at airports, raising concerns about the safety and security of people in Germany.
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Tags:
afghan migrant, germany, visa
