US EditionClimbing a Wall: Strategic Litigation Against Automated Systems in Migration and Asylum
GERMANY, JUL 8 – The court ruled the government must honor legally binding commitments to resettle vulnerable Afghans, despite the suspension affecting an estimated 2,500 awaiting visas in Pakistan.
- On Tuesday, a court in Berlin decided that Germany’s conservative administration is required to grant travel permits to an Afghan family stuck in Pakistan as part of a previously halted resettlement initiative.
- The programme was suspended after the Taliban's return to power in 2021, and the new government led by Chancellor Merz had frozen approvals amid a crackdown on immigration.
- The court found the government legally bound by unrevoked admission commitments and that the family faced credible threats of deportation to Afghanistan, risking danger to life.
- Approximately 2,400 Afghans, including the family, hold similar approvals but remain stranded in Pakistan awaiting visas, while Interior Minister Dobrindt stated the ruling applies only to these complainants.
- The ruling challenges the government's suspension but leaves open the decision on the programme’s future, signaling possible continued legal disputes over Afghan resettlement policies.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Germany Must Honor Visa Obligations to Afghan Refugees, Rules Court
A German court ruled on Tuesday that the government is obliged to issue visas to Afghan nationals and their family members who were accepted into a humanitarian admissions program that the new center-right coalition intends to shut down. A foreign ministry official said the government was reviewing the decision, which is not yet legally binding. After the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 by Western allies, Germany established several pr…
Germany had put its promise of protection on hold for more than 2000 threatened Afghans. That is not the case, a court now judges in the case of a family – another brake on the asylum course of the black and red coalition.
A Berlin court has decided that the Federal Foreign Office must implement an already given visa commitment to an Afghan family. In case of doubt, however, those affected could continue to be stuck in Pakistan.
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