Agency Report –
The deportation of the suspect in Wednesday’s deadly stabbing in the southern German city of Aschaffenburg failed due to a missed deadline, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann has said.
Hermann said Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) rejected the Afghan national’s application for asylum in June 2023 and ordered him to be deported to Bulgaria under EU migration rules.
However, “due to whatever errors and problems”, immigration authorities in the southern state of Bavaria were only alerted of the pending deportation on July 26, just six days before the deadline for its execution expired.
“Such a return cannot be organized within six days – especially if it comes completely unprepared,” said Herrmann.
After the deadline was missed, the 28-year-old suspect was left alone until he told authorities in December 2024 that he wanted to return to Afghanistan.
However, he was unable to travel home as he did not receive necessary documents from the Afghan consulate, Herrmann said.
The minister also added that deporting the man to Afghanistan would have been a challenge.
Germany does not have diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime, but it did organize one deportation flight to Kabul in 2024.
