Germany is facing a growing crisis after the Taliban began sending officials to staff Afghan diplomatic missions in the country, creating a severe dilemma for Afghans who fled the regime but now need passports or other documents, the Association of Afghan Organizations in Germany (VAFO) warned in January. VAFO said that lacking valid Afghan passports blocks people from securing residency, renewing work contracts and completing routine administrative procedures — and that expecting such matters to be handled through Taliban structures ignores the peril many applicants face.
The issue has emerged as Berlin moves to expand deportations to Afghanistan, a policy critics say the Taliban are exploiting to establish de facto diplomatic presence in Europe. After NATO troops withdrew in 2021 the Taliban retook power; Russia is so far the only country to officially recognize the movement as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, though a number of states maintain pragmatic ties. The regime has been widely condemned for harsh enforcement of Sharia and repeated human rights abuses.
German Interior Ministry officials traveled to Afghanistan in 2025 to negotiate deportation procedures. The ministry says the Taliban agreed in principle to accept people who can be proven to be Afghan nationals. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Bundestag in mid-January that deportations began in December, initially targeting people with criminal records.
Some observers describe the arrangement as a worrying concession. Conrad Schetter, director of the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC), called it a “dirty deal,” arguing that accrediting Taliban-appointed consular staff effectively treats them as legitimate Afghan representatives and gives them access to data on Afghan citizens in Germany — including many who fled precisely because the Taliban threatened them for cooperating with foreign forces.
That has produced what Schetter and others call a “gray zone” at the Afghan embassy in Berlin and consulates in Bonn and Munich: some offices remain run by representatives of the former, NATO-backed government while others have been taken over by Taliban appointees. He said the transfers were handled informally and quietly at first, and noted that Germany appears to be ahead of other European states in allowing such access — in part because it hosts the continent’s largest Afghan diaspora and is leading efforts to step up deportations.
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed it has been accrediting new staff sent from Kabul, prompting protests from diplomats appointed by the previous Afghan government. In October, Hamid Nangialay Kabiri resigned as acting consul general in Bonn after Taliban members were accredited there. “I told them I can’t work with terrorists,” he told reporters. Left without income and fearing persecution if he returns to Afghanistan, Kabiri sought asylum in Germany and has avoided the consulate, saying he cannot risk providing information that could expose relatives in Afghanistan to reprisals.
Civil-society groups are urging Berlin to create safe, alternative bureaucratic channels so Afghans can obtain or renew identity documents without contact with Taliban representatives. Jeanette Höpping, a legal adviser at YAAR, a Berlin NGO supporting Afghans, said many clients now fear entering consulates. She noted that a special document — the so-called “gray passport” — had been available after the 2021 regime change for people for whom obtaining papers from Kabul was too dangerous; that option is now closed and Afghans are generally required to present an Afghan passport or taskira (ID card) to apply for residency.
Thomas Ruttig, former co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said Germany could have pursued other options and that accrediting Taliban officials was not the only path. He argued the choice appears driven by a priority to enable large-scale deportations, which in turn gives the Taliban leverage to place their people in consulates.
Many Afghans who fled persecution now find themselves exposed to the very authorities they escaped. Kabiri called the situation absurd: after being granted asylum for fear of the Taliban, he asked, why would Germany now facilitate returning people to that regime? “Where is the logic?” he said.