The German federal government once gave Afghans a promise to accept them, which it no longer wants to keep. How arbitrarily it deals with Afghans is currently shown by the very different fates of two Afghan judges.
Both men were in a similar position. Both were judges in Afghanistan, both had a German acceptance letter. This was revoked for both in mid-December. However, one is now in Germany, the other is still in Pakistan. He has now filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee.
The lucky judge
The now happy lawyer was a judge at Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. After the Taliban came to power again, he received acceptance from Germany in 2022; he was on the so-called transition list. He then left Afghanistan with his wife and four children to apply for a visa for Germany at the German Embassy in Pakistan. But things didn’t progress.
In September he laid constitutional complaint. On December 4th, the court obliged the federal government to make an immediate decision on his visa application, but not that he should receive a visa.
Now the moment would have come for a miraculous turnaround in his case, but it never happened
In fact, the federal government revoked the admission promise on December 8th and rejected the visa application on December 10th, both on the grounds that there was no longer any political interest in admission to Germany. So everything is lost?
No. The tide turned for the former chief justice on December 16th. Without further explanation, the federal government announced that “there is once again political interest in the admission”. There are rumors that Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) personally ordered the change. On December 22nd, the chief justice was on a plane with his family to Germany, where he now lives. Happy ending.
The miraculous turnaround never happened
The second judge is still a long way from that, despite a very similar starting point. He was a criminal judge in Afghanistan and, according to his own statements, sentenced around 300 Taliban. After the Taliban came to power, they were released and some have now taken on high government positions. The criminal judge was therefore also considered to be at high risk and was placed on the so-called human rights list. In 2022 he received a German acceptance letter. He also fled to Pakistan with his wife and eight children in order to obtain a visa there.
The criminal judge also filed a constitutional complaint in September, but this was not initially decided. On December 8th, the federal government revoked his acceptance letter, and on December 10th his visa application was rejected. On December 15, the Federal Constitutional Court also rejected his constitutional complaint.
Now the moment would have come for a miraculous turnaround in his case, but it didn’t happen – no matter what in hundreds of other cases from the Human Rights and Transitional List.
At least the federal government didn’t completely abandon the criminal judge and his family. She transported him (and other Afghans whose admission was revoked) from the capital Islamabad to Peshawar in northern Pakistan, where deportation to Afghanistan is less likely. The ex-protégés will continue to be housed and fed on behalf of the federal government. They’re just not allowed to go to Germany.
In mid-January, the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF), which looks after the two judges, spoke on behalf of the criminal judge a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee and submitted an urgent application. A decision on the urgent application is expected in the next few days. An interim order from the UN committee would be binding under international law.