The German Federal Police are investigating several Afghans who entered the country with a promise of admission for possible document fraud.
Preliminary investigations have been launched in eight cases for document fraud, the authorities said on Thursday evening. According to information obtained by dpa from security sources, the cases mainly involve forged or falsified documents.
A plane chartered by the German government carrying 138 Afghan nationals granted admission to Germany touched down in the eastern city of Leipzig on Wednesday evening.
The plane took off from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
“We can confirm that the particularly endangered persons from Afghanistan who arrived yesterday from Pakistan have been subjected to entry checks and that preliminary investigations have been initiated,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the German tabloid Bild.
Foreign Office: No doubts about identity
“All persons on the charter flight were thoroughly checked,” a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin said. “There was no doubt about anyone’s identity, because security is the top priority in these procedures.”
All those who entered Germany had been persecuted by the Taliban.
Germany is taking in Afghans through several programmes. Until shortly before the Islamist Taliban seized power again in August 2021, Germany had soldiers in the country as part of a NATO mission.
In addition to former local staff of the German Armed Forces and other German institutions and their relatives, Afghans who fear persecution by the Taliban are also to be accepted. This may be the case because they have worked as lawyers or journalists for human rights in the past.
An airplane carrying Former local staff of German institutions from Afghanistan and particularly vulnerable people, such as human rights lawyers and women’s rights activists, which brought from Afghanistan, lands at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
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