The German government has begun offering cash payments to Afghan nationals stranded in Pakistan if they agree to abandon their efforts to immigrate to Germany under a suspended resettlement program once designed for vulnerable groups at risk under Taliban rule.
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed on Wednesday that the government had extended financial offers to Afghans who no longer have a legal pathway to resettlement. The plan, he said, is meant to give people “some perspective” after months or years of uncertainty.
“It is logical that if we assume that people have no possibility of being admitted to Germany, we offer them some perspective,” Dobrindt said. “This is linked to making a financial offer for a voluntary return to Afghanistan or another third country.”
He declined to disclose the amount of money offered or how many Afghans were affected. German media, including DPA news agency, reported that the payments could reach several thousand euros, with part of the sum disbursed in Pakistan and the remainder upon arrival in Afghanistan or another destination.
About 2,000 Afghans had been approved for relocation to Germany through the program, which prioritized people who worked with German institutions or forces, as well as journalists, lawyers, and human rights advocates. Many have been stuck in Pakistan since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover, waiting for visas and security clearances.
The initiative was suspended in May by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose conservative government has sought to curb migration amid rising public concern and the growing influence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
According to Dobrindt, Afghans who already have binding legal approval to enter Germany will still be admitted, subject to final security checks, but new entries under the suspended program will not be processed.
The policy shift has provoked sharp criticism from Afghans stranded in Pakistan, many of whom had pinned their hopes on Germany’s resettlement promise.
“We have spent two years in Pakistan, and now we are being offered a shameful and foolish deal that jeopardises our future and that of our children,” one Afghan recipient of the offer told DPA.
Rights groups and aid organizations have also questioned the ethics of sending people back to Afghanistan, where the Taliban government continues to restrict women’s rights and persecute former employees of Western institutions.
Despite the suspension, Germany remains under court orders to admit certain individuals already granted asylum. On Tuesday, a group of 31 Afghans arrived in the northern city of Hanover after successfully suing the government to enforce their resettlement rights.
Officials said the arrivals were “exclusively persons for whom legally binding court orders oblige the Federal Republic of Germany” to permit entry.
Meanwhile, hundreds of others continue to live in limbo across Pakistani cities such as Islamabad and Peshawar, uncertain whether to accept the cash offer or keep fighting for entry into Germany through the courts.
Africa Digital News, New York
