The exploratory paper by the CDU/CSU and SPD provides to “end voluntary federal admission programs, as far as possible (e.g. Afghanistan), and not introduce any new programs”. This would be disastrous and the end of the Federal Admission Program Afghanistan (BAP) – a fundamental human rights program!
Unlike as frequently portrayed publicly, the BAP Afghanistan represents a unique humanitarian admission program through which particularly vulnerable persons such as women, children, or LGBTIQ* persons can be specifically and safely admitted to Germany (see the admission order). As of February 28, 2025, however, only 1,262 people have entered Germany under the program. (As of February 28, 2025, source: Bundestag printed matter 20/15087).
We demand of the Members of the German Bundestag and the Federal Government: Stand by your humanitarian responsibility and your promise! Humanitarian admission programs like the BAP save lives and must be continued and expanded. There need to be secure access routes for particularly vulnerable people such as LGBTIQ* persons, women, children, journalists, and human rights activists.
Those also in acute danger are the people who have already received an admission commitment from the Federal Government under the BAP and who must now wait under uncertain conditions in Pakistan while awaiting departure. This currently affects 1,557 people (as of February 24, 2025, source: Bundestag printed matter 20/15087). They must be flown out urgently and as quickly as possible. Admission commitments are legal acts. “As far as possible” must therefore mean that the admission procedure for all people who have already received a commitment under the BAP and who are waiting for a visa in Islamabad continues even after the end of the legislative period.
In addition, the Federal Government has selected and contacted around 17,000 people under the BAP but has not issued any admission commitments. Abandoning these people can in individual cases have serious consequences and cost lives.
That is why we want new admission commitments to be issued to vulnerable people who have already been selected and contacted under the BAP.
«This admission program is the only hope for us Afghan women. » – this quote from a joint statement by Afghan women’s rights organizations makes clear: Admission programs like the BAP represent the last hope for many people for a life in safety. They are a necessary component of global refugee protection and the sharing of international responsibility, as are humanitarian visas and resettlement programs. That is why we want opportunities for humanitarian visas for particularly vulnerable and at-risk people who have not (yet) been considered in the BAP.
Instead of carrying out deportations that are clearly in violation of international law in the current situation in Afghanistan*, we want Germany to continue to support the most at-risk and vulnerable people, not break its own word and adhere to its commitments.
* (see: German Institute for Human Rights (04.03.2025): Position: Deportations to Afghanistan. A human rights assessment of the current debate)
Signatories:
Afghanistan-Schulen, Verein zur Unterstützung von Schulen in Afghanistan e.V.
AK Asyl Südstadt Tübingen
Amnesty International Deutschland e.V.
Arbeitskreis Asyl Eningen
Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI)
Artists at Risk (AR)
Asylzentrum Tübingen
Attac Deutschland
Attac Tübingen-Reutlingen
AWO Bundesverband e.V.
Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat e.V.
Beauftragter des Evangelischen Kirchenbezirks Tübingen für Flüchtlinge und Asylsuchende
Bundesweite Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Psychosozialen Zentren für Flüchtlinge und Folteropfer (BAfF e.V.)
Climate Activist Defenders
Der Paritätische Gesamtverband
Deutsch-Afghanische Freundschaftsgesellschaft Baaham e.V.
Deutscher Anwaltverein e.V.
European Organisation for Integration e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Berlin e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Brandenburg
Flüchtlingsrat Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen
Flüchtlingsrat RLP e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.
Flüchtlingsrat Schleswig-Holstein
Flüchtlingsrat Thüringen e.V.
Fremde brauchen Freunde e.V.
Freundeskreis Asyl Schwäbisch Hall
Freundeskreis Flüchtlinge Dettenhausen
Handicap International e.V.
Hessischer Flüchtlingsrat
Jesuiten-Flüchtlingsdienst Deutschland
Kabul Luftbrücke
medico international e.V.
move on – menschen.rechte Tübingen e.V.
Neue Richtervereinigung (NRV)
Niederdeutsch-Friesisches PEN-Zentrum (aspiring) e.V.
PRO ASYL – Bundesweite Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Flüchtlinge e.V.
TERRE DES FEMMES
Terre des Hommes Deutschland e.V.
UNUMONDO e.V.
Verband afghanischer Organisationen in Deutschland
Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschist*innen Kreisvereinigung Tübingen-Mössingen
ZBBS – Zentrale Bildungs- und Beratungsstelle für Migrant*innen in Kiel
You can also join this appeal via Open Petition: openpetition.de/!mykhh
