Germany deports third group of rejected Afghan asylum seekers

A third plane of rejected asylum seekers left the German city of Munich for Afghanistan on Wednesday reportedly carrying some 50 passengers on board.

Germany deported a record 80,000 migrants denied asylum last year and officials have said that figure will rise in 2017 as Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks to win back conservative voters before elections in September.

To placate conservatives put off by Merkel's decision in 2015 to open German borders to refugees, leaders of her Christian Democrat party (CDU) have been pushing to deport more migrants whose applications have failed or foreigners who have committed crimes.
 
Germany has taken in more than a million migrants in the past 18 months, often fleeing war and turmoil in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.       

Those seeking asylum need to show they would face persecution at home. Many whose applications are rejected have nevertheless been allowed to stay temporarily, a practice that Merkel's conservatives want to scale back.

Merkel has long argued the country needs to keep its doors open to those fleeing persecution while her Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), wants an upper limit of 200,000 refugees per year.
 
Merkel has refused that demand and the two parties have suffered a slump in support as a result of their squabbling before the September 24 election.

Germany has seen protests against the deportations in recent weeks and critics say much of Afghanistan is not safe and that returnees might face reprisals.

REUTERS