KABUL (Pajhwok): Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has announced a temporary halt to the admissions procedures for Afghan nationals, according to a media report on Thursday.
The decision was announced late Wednesday and was to apply with immediate effect, INFO MIGRANTS cited German news agency dpa report.
Procedures were to be suspended at German embassies in the Pakistani capital Islamabad and the Iranian capital Tehran.
According to diplomatic sources in Berlin, following “isolated indications of possible attempts at abuse” in recent weeks, the German Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry investigated the procedures at the Islamabad Embassy. They agreed to introduce an additional security questionnaire within a few days, at which time visa procedures for Afghans would resume.
No details were available about the reported efforts to abuse the system.
The German government says that since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, German missions abroad have issued more than 28,600 visas for Germany to Afghan nationals. Among them are around 4,100 Afghans who were working locally for the German armed forces and aid organizations (locally-employed staff).
To date, around 30,000 people from Afghanistan have been admitted to Germany, including former locally-employed staff and people deemed to be at particularly high risk, and their immediate families. In total, the German government has promised more than 44,000 Afghans admission to Germany.
The German office of national statistics, Destatis, announced Thursday (March 30) that 286,000 Afghan nationals arrived and were registered in the country last year. The largest number of refugees to be registered in Germany in 2022 were Ukrainians (1.01 million), followed by Syrians (674,000).
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