This is how refugees fly unnoticed to and from Afghanistan
Exclusive investigations by RTL reveal that many asylum seekers and refugees recognized in Germany are flying home for visits. They had previously stated that they fled there due to a danger to their lives. German authorities seem powerless, and the Interior Ministry appears disinterested.
The Steindamm in the Hamburg district of St. Georg appears to be a gateway to the homeland, the Hindukush, for many Afghans: Within a few hundred meters, there are several travel agencies that organize trips to the homeland for people from Afghanistan who have sought and received protection in Germany. The problem: German authorities are allegedly deliberately deceived and thus barely notice the travel activities. Otherwise, the Afghan travelers' residence permits in Germany could be easily revoked for an unauthorized home visit.
But how is a return trip to Afghanistan possible as a refugee? Who organizes these trips? Who knows about it? How large is the industry behind it? Who benefits? And why aren't the German authorities doing anything about it? The RTL show "Extra" has investigated these questions and broadcast the results of its months-long research on Tuesday evening.
On social media like TikTok, it becomes apparent: Afghan women and men living in Germany regularly go on vacation in their homeland and post pictures of their experiences there. Is Afghanistan actually safer than generally assumed? Afghan refugees discuss this with "RTL Extra" in a research interview. "Many Afghans from Europe are currently going back for vacation. Even from London, from Germany, people are making vacation," says an Afghan. And: The Taliban are "nice," reports a young Afghan woman.
Alleged destination: Iran
The research on the Hamburg Steindamm shows: It's not just a few isolated cases. In 2021, around 400,000 people with Afghan citizenship lived in Germany. According to the travel agency operators, hundreds of Afghans travel from Hamburg alone to their homeland every week using so-called Blue Passes.
These special travel documents are issued to recognized "asylees" or "refugees" in Germany as a replacement for the passport from the country of origin. They apparently also fly via Turkey and Iran to Afghanistan. "We do it. No problem," is the repeated response from various travel agencies when asked.
The travel agencies and the travelers themselves use the help of Iranian authorities to pull off a trick: so-called "double-entry visas" allow a trip to Afghanistan with a stopover in Iran. Iran is stated as the actual destination to the German authorities, for example, at the airport. The route then looks like this, for example: Hamburg, Tehran, Kabul, Tehran, Hamburg.
To deceive the German authorities, the visas are not stuck into the passports as usual, but placed in as a loose sheet of paper. In this way, the stamps of the border authorities are not stamped into the blue passport, but only onto the loose sheet of paper, which can be disposed of before returning to Germany. The actual destination, Afghanistan, is thus concealed upon re-entry to Germany. The German authorities usually don't notice.
No idea, no numbers
Asked if the Federal Ministry of the Interior knows about the home visits, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser passes the responsibility to the local foreign authorities and states to RTL: "First of all, it is not our task as the Federal Ministry of the Interior to ensure that such things do not happen." They will look into the matter. In writing, the ministry also states to RTL that exact numbers are "not statistically recorded."
Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for interior and legal affairs, Thorsten Frei, expresses outrage at this and sees it as a sign that the Interior Ministry has "absolutely no interest" in recording the data, as it is "obviously not even being looked at".
Heiko Teggatz, chairman of the Federal Police Union, also criticizes the Interior Minister sharply: "The federal government must now immediately enact a law to firmly embed such visas in passports. It's incomprehensible to me how a visa, which is simply placed in the passport like a leaflet, can have any validity. If you drive to Austria and have to buy an Autobahn vignette, you have to stick it to the windshield, not just put it on the dashboard."
Moreover, the federal police stations at airports do not have enough staff to control both arrivals and flight safety, as well as departures. "If the Interior Minister claims that the Federal Police is controlling everything at airports, she is greatly mistaken. She certainly knows this precisely."
Available on RTL Extra from August 13 via RTL+
- Despite the revelations, the Afghan individual asserted, "I'm not going to lie, I've visited Afghanistan recently, but I just used a double-entry visa to deceive German authorities."
- The German Interior Minister, in response to questions about the home visits, stated, "I'm not going to lie, we're aware of the issue, but we can't provide exact numbers as it's not statistically recorded."
