Bremerhaven: Urgent call for help – family is threatened with deportation to Afghanistan!

Bremerhaven: Urgent call for help – family is threatened with deportation to Afghanistan!

Mahdi Saberi from Bremerhaven is currently experiencing a real odyssey as he has been fighting for more than two years to bring his wife Maria and his little son back from Iran. The application for family reunification has been on the German authorities' table since 2022 and has not yet been processed. Saberi, who fled the Taliban to Germany in 2017 and now holds a German passport, is desperate because his wife's visa is about to expire, which could result in deportation to Afghanistan, putting the family in great danger. According to butenunbinnen.de, all attempts to speed up the processing process have failed. Even Bremerhaven's mayor Melf Granz asked the German foreign minister for help, but to no avail.

In his distress, Saberi plans to fly to Tehran via Istanbul to look for a solution there. There he initially has a short-term visa for 30 days and hopes to find a job. Meanwhile, his wife Maria has to register in a reception center to avoid the threat of deportation, which could put her life in danger. With the idea of ​​possibly fleeing secretly to Afghanistan to ensure her safety from the Taliban, Saberi is forced to make tragic decisions. His boss, Torsten Campen, and the works council are behind him and have already written a letter to the Turkish ambassador to enable his family to be temporarily accommodated in Turkey.

Family reunification and the challenges

The situation is similar to that of the Satari family, also from Afghanistan, whose members were dramatically separated. Sorosh Satari came to Germany in 2015 to make a better life for his family. His wife Shamsia made the arduous journey to Germany with their four daughters in 2019, but their traces were lost at a stopover. Two daughters remained in Iran and can now be looked after by their uncle. The Sataris had great difficulty finding the right contacts with the German authorities. After Sorosh received a residence permit in 2023, he requested an appointment for family reunification at the embassy in Tehran, but they are still waiting to hear back. The average waiting time for an appointment in Tehran is over a year, while the slightly improved conditions decided in 2023 still result in long delays, as zdf.de reports.

The number of Afghans who live in Germany and are trying to have their families join them is large. Especially since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, many Afghans have fled to neighboring Iran, where they often stay illegally. Pro Asyl speaks of a poor situation in the asylum procedure and calls for digitalization to make the procedures easier. At the same time, society is waiting for longer-term solutions as the situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain.

Deportations to Afghanistan

The return of refugees is being discussed more intensively, especially with regard to deportation policy. In July, 81 criminals were deported to Afghanistan, after 28 people had already made the same journey in August 2024. These deportations are the first since the Taliban came to power. While reports indicate a partially improved security situation in certain regions of Afghanistan, the fact remains that the lives of many people, especially women and girls, are at risk from the repressive Taliban regime. According to the UN refugee agency, experts expressly advise against deportations to Afghanistan.
Four German higher administrative courts have also decided differently on the legal basis for deportations, which further complicates the already complicated situation, as can be read on mediendienst-integration.de.

There are over 12,500 Afghans in Germany who are obliged to leave the country and are hoping for their residence status to be regulated. It remains to be seen how those responsible will deal with applications for family reunification and what further steps are necessary to offer the affected families a safe home.