Agency Report –
Berlin – For the second time in two weeks, a flight chartered by the German government has brought Afghans and their families to Berlin after they were approved for admission to Germany.
The Interior Ministry said there were 132 passengers on board the aircraft that took the refugees from Islamabad to the German capital on Wednesday.
Twenty-five other people from Afghanistan who had seats reserved on the plane did not make it on. The ministry said they were unable to make the flight in time.
The flights have come under the spotlight as anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric increases. The issue powered the far-right Alternative for Germany to second place in recent national elections.
Many of those on the flights are Afghans who worked with the German government, including the military, as local employees. Human rights activists, journalists and other vulnerable people have also been taken in amid fears they could be targeted by the Taliban.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said one of the people who landed in Berlin was a former employee accompanied by five relatives.
On February 25, a charter plane that had also taken off from Pakistan landed in Berlin with 155 Afghans.
