Bavarian Premier Markus Söder has called for immediate negotiations with the Taliban on deportation flights to Afghanistan following a deadly attack by an Afghan national in the southern German state’s capital, Munich.
“A flight is needed every week,” Söder told the Sunday edition of Germany’s Bild newspaper. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser should speak directly to the Taliban about deportation flights from Monday, he said.
A 24-year-old Afghan national drove a car into a trade union demonstration in Munich on Thursday, injuring at least 39 people, some seriously. A woman and her 2-year-old daughter died on Saturday as a result of their injuries.
Investigators currently assume the attack had an Islamist background.
Söder said there are almost 2,000 Afghans in the state of Bavaria alone who are required to leave Germany. Almost 200 of them are serious offenders, he added.
“Afghans obliged to leave the country must do so quickly, and the issuance of new visas [for Afghans] must be stopped for the foreseeable future,” the conservative premier said.
“First Aschaffenburg, now Munich: Enough is enough. Germany needs an emergency plan for Afghanistan,” he said, referring to another attack committed by an Afghan national in a different Bavarian city in January, which left two people dead.
According to the authorities, the alleged perpetrator of the attack in Munich was legally resident in Germany.
A court judgement rejecting his asylum application from October 2020 showed that he is said to have lied about his escape story. However, Munich city issued a toleration decision in April 2021 and granted the man a residence permit in October of the same year.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday said the man will be deported after serving his sentence. “Anyone who does something like this must expect the harshest penalties,” he said.
The first deportation flight from Germany to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power three years ago took place in August 2024. It transported 28 convicted criminals who had received deportation orders back to their home country.
Faeser emphasized after the attack in Munich that deportations to Afghanistan would continue. However, such flights are difficult to implement as they require cooperation with the Taliban, either directly or indirectly via neighbouring countries.
The Taliban expressed openness to cooperating on deportations in the wake of the attack in Munich, but demanded a consular presence in Germany in return. “We have shown our willingness to resume consular services for Afghans in Germany that cover all aspects of migration,” Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told dpa.
Critics have warned in the past against such talks with the Islamist Taliban, which is isolated internationally. The Taliban could benefit from deportations by using them as an opportunity to work with a Western state, they warn
