Thousands of Afghan Refugees in Germany May Be Former Taliban Members

Thousands of migrants and refugees, who arrived in Germany from Afghanistan, may be former members of the Taliban terror group, outlawed in Russia, German media reported on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees informed the German security services about the potential threat, the Spiegel media outlet reported.

At the same time, some migrants are said to be providing false information about their links to Taliban in an attempt to persuade the German authorities that they could face persecution in Afghanistan – possibly a death penalty – in the case of deportation.

Now the German Prosecutor’s Office is reportedly investigating 70 cases of possible refugees’ links to the Taliban group.

In 2015, Germany declared an open-door refugee policy, becoming one of the key destinations for migrants coming to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa. According to the country's Interior Ministry, the number of refugees that came to Germany in 2016 amounted to some 280,000, compared to 890,000 arrivals in 2015. The majority of asylum seekers arriving in Germany are from Syria or Afghanistan.