In Pakistan, around 1,900 Afghan citizens are still waiting to enter Germany. Many of them once helped the German Armed Forces and other German institutions when Germany participated in the military mission to combat terrorism and build democracy in Afghanistan. The Federal Republic promised them in 2023 that they would be accepted in Germany. On 3 December 2025, the German Bundestag rejected a motion by Alliance 90/The Greens to complete the pending proceedings or to grant entry visas to Germany to those waiting. 440 members of parliament voted by roll call, 130 of whom voted in favour of the Greens’ motion.
Administrative courts consider admission promises to be binding
In doing so, courts are increasing pressure on legislators. Several German administrative courts, most recently the Berlin Administrative Court on 7 July 2025, agreed that the Federal Republic of Germany must adhere to “admission notices part 1” that had already been issued, as the BAMF had done in the case heard on 24 October 2023. In that case, entry into Germany in April 2025 had failed because Afghan authorities had recorded two different dates of birth for one person.
Threat of deportation to Afghanistan
In their motion, Alliance 90/The Greens pointed out the current danger for Afghans with admission permits in Pakistan: the Pakistani police had already deported 210 of them to Afghanistan in August and September 2025 and announced further deportations to the neighbouring country from 31 December 2025. The Berlin Administrative Court recognised this threat: although the German embassy had established a “safety net” consisting of a letter of protection, sensitisation of the Pakistani government, transmission of names to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, support with visa extensions for Pakistan and an emergency chain for Afghans with admission permits, this did not protect them from deportation in every case. In June 2025, an employee of the organisation Kabul airlift testified to the court that he heard this “at least ten times a week”: the police in Islamabad had stopped Afghans and torn up their letters of protection in front of their eyes. Those who did not want to be taken away had to pay money to the Pakistani police officers. Pakistani authorities are also said to have deported Afghan nationals who were under German care from guest houses.
Federal Constitutional Court demands immediate visa decision
On 4 December 2025, the Federal Constitutional Court (BVG) upheld the constitutional complaint of an Afghan judge, his wife and their four children. It obliged the Federal Republic of Germany to decide immediately on their visa applications because it saw “an increasing risk of deportation from Pakistan with the possible consequence of increased access for the Taliban” for this family. The highest German court demanded an immediate decision in the visa procedure, but left the decision to the competent German authorities.
New support for Afghans from the EKD
The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) is stepping up its financial support for Afghans waiting for visas in Pakistan, as Bishop Christian Stäblein, the EKD’s refugee commissioner, explained: “We are donating 100,000 euros from collections to the Kabul Air Bridge to support the legal proceedings of those affected and to ensure their humanitarian care.” At the same time, Stäblein appealed to the German government to “bring the remaining 2,000 or so Afghans who have been promised admission to safety. Germany’s responsibility does not end with the withdrawal of troops, but also includes acting justly in retrospect from a peace ethics perspective.”
Even more at risk than before after deportation
Wolfgang Bauer, editor at Die Zeit and Afghanistan expert, said in an interview with tuenews INTERNATIONAL that the admission programmes for Afghans should have been organised differently from the outset: “People should not have been asked to enter Pakistan, only to then drag out the whole process over two years, causing great human suffering.
These people are now, of course, particularly exposed to the Taliban. And now they are being left in the lurch for political reasons in order to push through a more rigid migration policy.”
This has achieved the exact opposite of what was originally intended, namely to bring them to safety. “They are now even more at risk than before if they have to return to Afghanistan. The Taliban will consider them a security risk because they stated that they were opponents of the Taliban and therefore wanted to go to Germany.” He experienced for himself what this can mean during his last stay in Afghanistan in July 2025: “My translator was arrested right before my eyes. This was not because of his work for me, but because he was the co-founder of an illegal school for girls. He was tortured in the most brutal way, for example, hung naked with one foot attached to the ceiling. After three days, he could no longer speak.” Incidentally, the people who applied for the admission programmes—the majority of them women—were the most thoroughly vetted refugees and did not pose a security risk to Germany. Bauer himself managed to bring 55 Afghans who had supported him in his research in Afghanistan, along with their families, directly to Germany and accommodate them here as refugees.
Majority in the Bundestag insists on further case-by-case assessment
In the vote on the motion by Alliance 90/The Greens, a clear majority of the German Bundestag followed the recommendations of the Interior Committee and the Legal Affairs Committee. The Greens, as the applicants, demanded that legally binding admission commitments be honoured and referred in particular to the danger of “persecution by the Taliban” if Pakistan were to deport those affected to Afghanistan. They said it was undignified that these people first had to go through the arduous process of seeking protection individually in court.
The government coalition was among the factions that rejected the motion. In the committees, the CDU faction criticised, among other things, that the 100 non-governmental organisations that compiled the pre-selection of applications had not always proceeded in a legally secure manner. It also pointed out that 37,000 people from Afghanistan had already come to Germany through four different programmes. A decision is still pending for 2,300 people. This decision must be made on a case-by-case basis. “Provided that a binding admission commitment has been made, the risk assessment is positive, the identity has been established and the persons do not oppose the democratic basic order or are anti-Semitic, the Federal Government will fulfil its obligation,” the CDU said in its statement. The SPD parliamentary group took the position that “only some of the people in question here are local staff.” The Federal Ministry of the Interior is conducting thorough individual reviews and taking into account both the humanitarian aspects and the responsibility of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as legitimate security interests, the SPD parliamentary group continued.
tuenews INTERNATIONAL reported on these developments several times:
tun25040104, tun25082601, tun25090202
Vote in the German Bundestag:
https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2025/kw49-de-afghanen-1128132
Bundestag printed paper 21/2159 of 10 October 2025, recommendation for a decision and report by the Committee on Internal Affairs:
https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/021/2102159.pdf
Bundestag printed paper 21/3031 of 2 December 2025, motion by several members of parliament and the BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN parliamentary group of 2 December 2025 “Keep your word, protect lives—issue visas to Afghan nationals with admission commitments and implement court decisions”:
https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/030/2103031.pdf
Decision of the Berlin Administrative Court:
https://gesetze.berlin.de/perma?d=NJRE001613260
Press release of the Federal Constitutional Court No. 110/2025 of 4 December 2025:
https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2025/bvg25-110.html?nn=68112
Press release from the EKD:
EKD refugee commissioner promises help to those seeking protection in Afghanistan – EKD
By Michael Seifert and Wolfgang Sannwald
tun25112507