Sigmar Gabriel urges Chancellor Scholz to enter talks with the Taliban.
Following the knife attack in Mannheim, Chancellor Scholz declares that deportations to Syria and Afghanistan will once again be permitted. Previous SPD leader Gabriel decries this decision as impulsive. He suggests fulfilling pledges and advocates for talks with the Taliban administration in Afghanistan.
Former SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel recommends that Chancellor Olaf Scholz engage in discussions with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to allow deportations legally. "The federal government must try to negotiate with the Taliban to ensure that deportations can be legally enforced," he penned in a piece for "Bild am Sonntag." "It should demand verifiable assurances from Kabul that those deported will not be tortured or killed." Furthermore, the federal government must "reward countries that take back their citizens if they lack residency permits in Germany."
Upon the lethal stabbing of a police officer in Mannheim, Scholz declared that deportations of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria would be possible once more. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is presently assessing this matter. Since the Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in August 2021, there is a halt on deporting Afghans in Germany. Concerns exist regarding negotiations with the Islamic Taliban, as they might not be recognized and funds spent on such negotiations may be used to construct terror cells within Germany.
Gabriel continued, emphasizing the necessity for the federal government to clarify that governments unwilling to accept their citizens will no longer receive help from Germany - specifically, no EU visas for the political and economic elite of these nations. The former SPD leader critiqued Scholz's apparently vacillating attitude toward deportations. "It's about time for Olaf Scholz to initiate this shift," Gabriel stated.
"Recall his tenure as Hamburg's interior minister: Scholz can be firm. An aesthetic mistake: Even back then in Hamburg, the change of course occurred too late," Gabriel elaborated. "And now, the SPD had to drop to humiliating 15% in popularity before the chancellor undertook what he had always promised: Exercise leadership and silence his critics within his party." The reality is straightforward: "Those who seek asylum abroad and then commit crimes or murder here in our country forfeit our protection."
Read also:
The Taliban's stance on deportations could pose a challenge for Chancellor Scholz, as Sigmar Gabriel advises, given concerns over human rights violations. Despite the ongoing debate, Chancellor Scholz continues to advocate for legal deportations to Afghanistan in response to escalating crime rates. The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has yet to provide assurances that deported individuals will not face violence or persecution.
