• Germany repatriated 22 male Afghan offenders charged with crimes including murder, robbery, and aggravated arson back to Afghanistan on a charter flight.
• Since the current German coalition government took office, a total of 250 Afghan nationals have been returned to Afghanistan, with the recent flight to Kabul taking place on Monday.
• Critics have raised concerns over the German government's concessions to facilitate deportations to Afghanistan, especially given the human rights violations of the Taliban government that is not recognized by Germany.

Germany has repatriated a further 22 Afghans subject to deportation to their country of origin on a charter flight.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that all of them were male offenders from a total of 12 federal states. They are charged with offences including murder, robbery and aggravated arson.

A total of 250 Afghan nationals have now been returned to Afghanistan since the current German coalition government took office.

The Rheinische Post newspaper reported that the flight to Kabul took place on Monday.

The Islamist Taliban recently sent more personnel to Germany. Berlin says this was intended to facilitate the deportation of more people to Afghanistan, for example by speeding up the issuing of travel documents.

Critics have repeatedly criticized the government for making concessions to enable deportations, even though it does not recognize the Taliban government - partly because of its human rights violations.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said at the end of July that deportations to Afghanistan would no longer be limited exclusively to offenders and "persons posing a threat."

The organization Pro Asyl reported, citing a parliamentary question in the Bundestag, that by the end of 2025 there were around 13,000 Afghans living in Germany who were required to leave the country.

Of these around 10,000 held a "toleration" status, meaning that currently they cannot be deported.