Friedrich Merz’s attempt to distance his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from resumed flights of Afghan migrants into Germany were undercut last week when his likely coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), backed continued arrivals, saying the people being flown in had supported German troops in Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that the leftist party bent the truth to make its case—since most such former staff are already inside Germany.
SPD parliamentary group vice-chair Dirk Wiese said that many of the 155 migrants on the first flight since the election “worked for our troops in Afghanistan,” and that “abandoning these local staff is the wrong approach.”
But only five—or just over three percent—of those on board were former local staff.
These were accompanied by 22 family members, around four per migrant, leaving 128 passengers with no connection to employment with German troops. Focus reports that three Afghans on the flight also faced criminal charges immediately after landing in Berlin—they’d arrived with ‘proxy passports’ issued by the Taliban.
The figures are set to be more damaging for the CDU with the next flight, due to land this week. Of the 157 scheduled to arrive in Germany, only two are former local staff, accompanied by 13 relatives. Others on board supposedly include campaigners for democracy in Afghanistan, although officials have described security checks as “incomplete and negligent.”
CDU representative Alexander Throm told Bild that it is not possible for many more former staff to be among the arrivals since “almost all of them are already with us.” Though with his party having U-turned on a pre-election migration pledge, and continuing now to hold coalition talks with the SPD, it is difficult to imagine an abandonment of the existing position.
The previous administration already accepted 50,000 Afghan migrants since their country fell to the Taliban in August 2021. The next flight from Afghanistan is scheduled to land in Berlin on Wednesday, March 5th.
