Thousands of Afghan asylum seekers living in Germany are reportedly spending their vacations in the homeland they claim they were forced to flee. They are doing so through a passport trick that makes it appear as though they only traveled to Iran.
Of the 400,000 Afghans living in Germany, around 60,000 have a Blue Pass, a replacement for a passport given to asylum seekers that allows them to travel but explicitly states that they have no right to return to the country they supposedly fled.
Despite this, hundreds travel back to Afghanistan every week from Hamburg alone. They first travel to Iran, where they can secure a double entry visa. The double entry visas are not stamped into the passports or attached to them. This means they can be easily hidden from German authorities or simply discarded before returning to Germany, so it appears the asylum seekers’ only destination was Iran.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, roughly equivalent to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, expressed little interest when confronted with the allegations, denying the Interior Ministry was even responsible and insisting the issue is a matter for local immigration authorities. However, Heiko Teggatz, chairman of the Federal Police Union, called for a law to force countries to attach visas to passports. He says the Federal Police, who manage the border, are too short-staffed.
In recent years, there have been several high-profile stabbing attacks by Afghan asylum seekers in Germany, including a mass stabbing attack in May at an anti-Islamisation rally and another mass stabbing of soccer fans in June.
Despite these crimes, the German government refuses to deport Afghan criminals back to Afghanistan, claiming the country is too dangerous for them. This view is seemingly not held by the asylum seekers who are returning to the country on vacation.
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