BERLIN — A Berlin court ruled Tuesday that Germany’s conservative-led government is obliged to resettle an Afghan family stranded in Pakistan following the effective suspension of a program to provide refuge to endangered Afghans.
The ruling constitutes another setback for conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s vow to drastically curtail the influx of asylum-seekers into Germany. After Merz became chancellor, his government effectively suspended a resettlement program for Afghans deemed particularly vulnerable following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. That decision stranded some 2,400 Afghans who German authorities had already committed to resettling; those Afghans are in Pakistan awaiting flights to Germany.
The German government “has legally bound itself through final, unrevoked admission commitments,” the Berlin court said in its ruling, adding that “the applicants had made a credible case that they were threatened with deportation from Pakistan to Afghanistan, where they would face danger to life and limb.”
The plaintiffs in the case were an Afghan woman who, before the Taliban takeover, worked as a law lecturer and deputy head of the election commission along with her family. They are awaiting resettlement in Pakistan along with women’s rights activists, LGBTQ+ people and others deemed endangered under Taliban rule.
It’s unclear whether the government will consider the ruling as establishing a precedent for similar cases. The interior ministry and the foreign ministry — who are responsible for the resettlement program — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“The court’s decision only legally binds the parties involved in the legal dispute, i.e. the applicant and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),” a spokesperson for the court said. “At the same time, according to the court’s decision, the FRG remains bound to … promises of admission, such as those given here.”
More legal decisions are expected as Afghans challenge the government’s suspension of the resettlement program.
In a similar blow to Merz’s promised migration crackdown, a court last month ruled that that the German government’s push to turn away asylum-seekers at the country’s borders is unlawful. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, however, challenged the scope of the court’s decision, suggesting it only applied to the three complainants in the case. The government continues to defend the border checks.
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