GERMANY deported dozens of Afghan men to their homeland today, the second time it has done so since the Taliban returned to power and despite the regime’s dire human rights record.

German authorities said a flight took off this morning carrying 81 Afghans, all whom had had their asylum applications rejected.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the deportation was carried out with the help of Qatar and preceded by weeks of negotiations. He also said there were contacts with Afghanistan, but didn’t elaborate.

More than 10 months ago, Germany’s previous government deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the first time since the Taliban returned to power following the US’s disastrous retreat from the country in 2021. Then-chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations of asylum-seekers.

Mr Merz noted that Berlin doesn’t recognise the Taliban government in Kabul.

“The decisive question is how one deals with this regime, and it will remain at technical co-ordination until further notice,” he said at a news conference in Berlin.

The Interior Ministry said the government aims to carry out more deportations to Afghanistan, but didn’t specify when that might happen.

Mr Merz made punitive migration policy a central plank of his campaign for Germany’s election in February.

Arafat Jamal, the UN’s refugee agency’s (UNHCR) representative in Afghanistan said earlier this month that a “non-return advisory” was still in place.

“In other words the conditions on the ground are not yet ready for returns. We urge countries not to forcibly return [people] to Afghanistan.”