Afghan refugees stranded in Pakistan as Germany halts entry

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Berlin/Islamabad: At a narrow guest house in the federal capital, 25 -year -old alchemy spends his days in women’s sketches.

A visual artist and a women’s rights lawyer, fled to Afghanistan after being accepted in a German humanitarian admission program in 2024, which aimed to be considered a threat to the Taliban.

A year later, the chemistry is trapped in the lamb.

Thousands of kilometers in Germany, a elections in February where migration dominated public debate, and the government’s change in May has gradually suspended the program.

Now the new center right alliance plans to close it.

The situation echoes that about 1,660 Afghans were cleared to settle in the United States, but then after US President Donald Trump took over and suspended migrant programs, he found himself in Lumbo in January.

Chemical interviews at the German Embassy, ​​which they hoped would have resulted in a flying country and the right to live there, suddenly canceled in April. Meanwhile, Germany pays its rooms, food and medical care in Islamabad.

“My whole life comes in this interview,” he told Reuters. He only named his artist for fear of retaliation.

“We just want to find a place that is calm and safe,” he said about himself and other women in the guest house.

The admission program began in October 2022, which was planned to bring 1,000 Afghans to Germany every month, which was considered a threat to human rights, justice, politics or their work in education, or because of their gender, religion or sexual tendency.

However, due to the cancellation of the hold ups and flights, it reached less than 1,600 in two years.

Today, about 2,400 Afghans are waiting for Germany today, the German Foreign Ministry said. It is not clear whether they travel. NGOs say that under the inactive scheme, there are 17,000 more in the early stages of choice and application.

The Foreign Ministry said that the program was suspended under the postponement of a government review, and the government would continue to take care of the people in the program and continue their residence.

He did not answer the writers’ questions on the number of canceled interviews, or how long will the suspension continue?

Reuters spoke to eight Afghans, migratory lawyers and advocate groups living in Pakistan and Germany, who described the destiny of the program as a part of a wider curb on claims of Afghan asylum in Germany, and it was believed that Sunni men were not particularly in danger under the Taliban.

The German government says there is no special policy to reduce the number of Afghan immigrants. However, according to the Federal Migration Office (BAMF), the approval rate for Afghan asylum applicants in 2024 fell 52 percent in the early 2025, down from 74 percent in 2024.

Political change

The government says that in August 2021, Kabul fell from the Taliban. Since May 2021, Germany has acknowledged about 36,300 weak Afghans through various routes, including former local staff.

Thorston Free, the Chief of Staff of Germany’s new Chancellor Frederick Mirza, said that humanity has now reached the level of migration, which is “exceeding the integration of society.”

“Unless we have irregular and illegal migration in Germany, we cannot easily implement voluntary admission programs.”

The Interior Ministry said that programs like one for Afghans will be abolished phasedly and they are examining how to do so.

Several Afghan government is prosecuted on suspension. Matthews Lehinar, who represents them, said Germany could not easily suspend its entry without some terms as a person is no longer a threat.

Since former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened German borders in 2015 to more than one million refugees, public sentiment has shifted, partially as a result of several deadly attacks by asylum seekers. Right -wing alternatives to the German Party (AFD), taking advantage of anti -refugee sentiment, reached the second place in the February elections.

The Afghans, who spoke to Reuters, said they feared they were unfairly associated with the criminals, and if they had to return to Afghanistan, they were threatening their lives.

“I am very sorry about the people who are injured or killed … but this is not our fault,” said the chemistry.

A year after waiting for 30 -year -old Afghan Mohammed Mojib Rizai, with 100 other refugees, he left for Cyprus in March under the European Union’s voluntary solidarity mechanism. He said he was in danger after criticizing the Taliban. Two weeks after seeking asylum in Berlin, his request was rejected.

He was surprised at the decision. The spokesman said that Bamf did not get any special need for protection in his case.

“It’s ridiculous-but not surprising,” said Nicholas Schivarex, a legal adviser at the AWO Counseling Center in Berlin.

Shivrax said he believes that Afghan asylum cases have been handled in different ways since the mid -2024, after which a rally in the city of Minhim, after a mass stabbing stabbed, in which six people were injured and one police officer was killed. An Afghan asylum seeking was charged and he is waiting for the trial.

‘You don’t live’

Spending most of the days in your room surrounded by English and German textbooks, chemistry says it is unimportant to return to Afghanistan. His art can make him a target.

“If I go back, I can’t follow my dreams – I can’t work, I can’t study. It is as if you only breathe, but you don’t survive.”

Under the Taliban’s rule, women are mostly banned from public life. If male patrons are disgusting, then harassment is harassed by the police of morality, and it will have to follow tough clothing codes, including facial cover. When security forces raided homes, chemistry said they proudly hide their art.

The Taliban say they respect the rights of women in accordance with their Islamic law and local culture and are not targeting former enemies.

Hussein, a 35 -year -old journalist and a women’s rights activist from Kabul, who fled to Pakistan and were accepted as an applicant in the German program.

The Taliban and her ex -husband’s family divorced and threatened, which they say have threatened to kill her and take her daughter, she said, adding that there is no option.

The 25 -year -old Marina fled Afghanistan after separating her family. His mother, a human rights lawyer, was able to go to Germany. Marina has been waiting with her baby to follow her for almost two years in Pakistan.

He said, “My life is stuck, I want to go to Germany, I want to work, I want to contribute. Here I feel so useless.”