Germany has agreed to allow six additional Taliban diplomats into the country as part of an arrangement aimed at expanding deportations of Afghan nationals, according to a report by the public broadcaster NDR.
Citing diplomatic sources, NDR reported that the agreement emerged from confidential talks last week in Istanbul between senior German Interior Ministry officials and representatives of the Taliban administration.
Germany’s Interior Ministry confirmed to NDR that discussions had taken place at a “technical level” between ministry officials and Taliban representatives but declined to comment on the reported arrangement. Germany’s Foreign Office confirmed that the meeting was held in Istanbul.
According to the report, Germany plans to increase charter deportation flights to Afghanistan to as many as three per month. Deportations on commercial flights would also remain possible.
NDR said the Taliban had long conditioned broader cooperation on deportations on being allowed to expand their diplomatic presence in Germany. Taliban officials are reportedly needed to verify the identities of Afghans facing deportation and issue travel documents required for their return.
Germany currently hosts two Taliban-appointed consular officials, one based at Afghanistan’s embassy in Berlin and another at its consulate in Bonn. NDR has previously reported that the two officials have effectively assumed leadership roles at the missions, although Germany has not formally recognized them as heads of mission.
The reported agreement marks a significant step in practical engagement between Germany and the Taliban, who remain unrecognized by Berlin nearly five years after returning to power in Afghanistan.
The development follows earlier reporting by NDR that the Taliban were seeking to place their own diplomats in additional European countries in exchange for cooperation on migrant returns. Afghan diplomats opposed to the Taliban warned at the time that such arrangements could gradually transfer control of Afghanistan’s diplomatic missions in Europe to the Taliban.
“The Taliban celebrate these diplomatic concessions as victories,” Naseer Andisha, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Switzerland and the UN office in Geneva, told NDR in May. He argued that the Taliban were using such gains to strengthen its international standing while continuing to tighten restrictions inside Afghanistan.
The issue has gained urgency as several European governments seek ways to deport Afghans whose asylum claims have been rejected or who have been convicted of crimes.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said deportations to Afghanistan would be carried out “regularly and reliably,” arguing that individuals who commit serious crimes should be returned to their home country.
According to German media reports, at least 100 Afghan nationals currently remain in criminal or immigration detention awaiting deportation.
The reported deal is likely to draw criticism from human rights organizations and Afghan activists, who have warned against measures that could be seen as legitimizing Taliban.
The UN and rights groups have repeatedly documented severe restrictions on women and girls, arbitrary detentions and other human rights concerns under Taliban rule. UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett recently criticized plans for talks with Taliban representatives in Brussels on migration issues, saying such engagement would be “an insult to Afghans, especially women.”
Neither the German government nor the Taliban has publicly confirmed the reported agreement. If implemented, however, the arrival of six additional Taliban diplomats would represent one of the largest expansions of the Taliban’s diplomatic footprint in Europe since their return to power in August 2021.
