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Germany to seek direct contact with Taliban on deportations

Germany to seek direct contact with Taliban on deportations

Arab News2 days ago
BERLIN: Germany's interior minster on Thursday said he wanted direct contact with the Taliban authorities in a bid to enable criminals to be deported back to Afghanistan.'I envision us making agreements directly with Afghanistan to enable deportations,' Alexander Dobrindt said in an interview with Focus magazine.Berlin currently has only indirect contact with the Taliban through third parties, an arrangement Dobrindt said 'cannot remain a permanent solution.'Germany stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban's return to power in 2021.But a debate over resuming expulsions has flared as migration becomes a key issue amid the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.Twenty-eight Afghan nationals who had been convicted of crimes were deported in August last year after Germany's previous government carried out indirect negotiations with the Taliban.No further deportations have taken place. But the debate has continued to rage, especially since a series of deadly attacks last year blamed on asylum seekers — with several of the suspects from Afghanistan.Germany's new government, a coalition between the conservative CDU/CSU and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), has promised to expel more foreign criminals alongside a crackdown on irregular migration.Dobrindt also said he was in contact with authorities to enable deportations to Syria, which have been suspended since 2012.Longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad was toppled in December. The country is now under the control of Islamist leaders, some of whom were once linked with the Al-Qaeda jihadist network.Germany has made tentative contact with the new authorities and has sent several delegations to Damascus for talks.Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week said he believed 'deportations to Syria are possible today, given the current circumstances and situation.'Austria on Thursday deported a Syrian convict back to Syria, becoming the first EU country to do so officially in recent years.
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US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling
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Arab News

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  • Arab News

US completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling

WASHINGTON: Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have now reached the Trump administration's intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State Department advises against travel to due to 'crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.' The immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan arrived in South Sudan on Friday after a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to relocate them in a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the US Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the US 'This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,' said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday announcing the men's arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war. The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the transfer of the men who had been put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan. That meant that the South Sudan transfer could be completed after the flight was detoured to a base in Djibouti, where they men were held in a converted shipping container. The flight was detoured after a federal judge found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow the men a chance to challenge the removal. The court's conservative majority had ruled in June that immigration officials could quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger. A flurry of court hearings on Independence Day resulted a temporary hold on the deportations while a judge evaluated a last-ditch appeal by the men's before the judge decided he was powerless to halt their removals and that the person best positioned to rule on the request was a Boston judge whose rulings led to the initial halt of the administration's effort to begin deportations to South Sudan. By Friday evening, that judge had issued a brief ruling concluding the Supreme Court had tied his hands. The men had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said. Authorities have reached agreements with other countries to house immigrants if authorities cannot quickly send them back to their homelands.

Trump administration deports eight migrants to South Sudan
Trump administration deports eight migrants to South Sudan

Al Arabiya

time11 hours ago

  • Al Arabiya

Trump administration deports eight migrants to South Sudan

The Trump administration has deported to South Sudan eight migrants who had been held for more than a month by the US at a military base in Djibouti, the Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday, after the migrants lost a last-ditch effort to halt their transfer. An aircraft carrying US deportees arrived in South Sudan on Saturday, two officials working at Juba airport said. An airport staffer speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters he had seen a document showing that the aircraft 'arrived this morning at 6:00 am' (0400 GMT). An immigration official also said the deportees had arrived in the country but shared no further details, referring all questions to the National Security Service intelligence agency. Earlier, a South Sudan government source said US officials had been at the airport awaiting the migrants' arrival. The fate of the migrants had become a flashpoint in the fight over the legality of the Trump administration's campaign to deter immigration through high-profile deportations to so-called 'third countries' where migrants say they face safety concerns, which has already gone from lower courts to the Supreme Court twice. South Sudan has long been dangerous even for local residents. The US State Department advises citizens not to travel there due to violent crime and armed conflict. The United Nations has said the African country's political crisis could reignite a brutal civil war that ended in 2018. The eight men, who according to their lawyers are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam, had argued their deportations to South Sudan would violate the US Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. They had been held in US custody in Djibouti since a federal judge in Boston in May blocked the Trump administration from immediately moving them to South Sudan over due process concerns. Following additional litigation, the Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the administration, lifting those limits. Two courts considered requests from the migrants' lawyers on an emergency basis on Friday, when courts are otherwise closed for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, but ultimately US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston said the Supreme Court order required him to deny their bid, clearing the way for their deportation. The location of the men in South Sudan after their arrival was not immediately known.

US deportees arrive in South Sudan, airport sources say
US deportees arrive in South Sudan, airport sources say

Arab News

time13 hours ago

  • Arab News

US deportees arrive in South Sudan, airport sources say

An immigration official also said the deportees had arrived in the countryNAIROBI: An aircraft carrying US deportees arrived in South Sudan on Saturday, two officials working at Juba airport said, after eight migrants lost their last-ditch effort to halt their deportation by the Trump airport staffer speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters he had seen a document showing that the aircraft 'arrived this morning at 6:00 am.'(0400 GMT) An immigration official also said the deportees had arrived in the country but shared no further details, referring all questions to the National Security Service intelligence a South Sudan government source said US officials had been at the airport awaiting the migrants' arrival.

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