Merkel's Rival Schulz Urges Germany Not to Deport Children, Women to Afghanistan

The deportation of women and children to Afghanistan should be stopped in light of the Wednesday terror attack in the Afghan capital, candidate for the German Chancellor’s office of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Martin Schulz said Thursday.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — Germany was set to send Afghan migrants who were denied asylum back to their homeland on Wednesday, however, the deportation was postponed as the powerful blast rocked Kabul, killing up to 90 people and causing damage to numerous buildings, including the German embassy. Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the explosion.

"Personally, I believe that children and women cannot be deported to Afghanistan, this needs to be said clearly… In the light of yesterday events we cannot continue to deport, we should wait for the Foreign Ministry’s analysis on the situation in the security sphere and only after that decide within the framework of the further," Schulz said.

In February, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced an acceleration of the deportation process of migrants that pose potential threat to the lives of German citizens, following the December 2016 Berlin attack, when a Tunisian migrant rammed into a crowd at a popular Christmas market, killing 12 people and leaving 49 injured. In the follow-up to Merkel's statement, federal refugee coordinator Peter Altmaier pledged to deport more than 80,000 failed asylum seekers, a record number that was reached in 2016.

Afghanistan is experiencing political, social and security instability, mostly attributed to the activity of the Taliban (banned in Russia). The crisis in the country has prompted the emergence of local cells of additional extremist organizations such as the Islamic State (IS, also banned in Russia) terrorist group.