Germany | Pakistan

Germany said on Friday it had deported 81 Afghan men convicted of crimes to their Taliban-controlled homeland, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government looks to signal a hard line on immigration. The interior ministry said a plane carrying the men took off Friday morning bound for Afghanistan, adding that all the deportees were under expulsion orders and were convicted by the criminal justice system. The government of Europe’s top economy was forging ahead with a “policy change”, said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who was hosting several European counterparts for a migration meeting. “Deportations to Afghanistan must continue to be carried out safely in the future. There is no right of residence for serious criminals in our country.” Berlin has had only indirect contact with the Taliban authorities through third parties with Friday’s operation executed with the help of Qatar, said the German interior ministry. Germany had stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following t...

Germany’s data protection commissioner has asked Apple and Google to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in the country due to concerns about data protection. Commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement on Friday that she made the request because DeepSeek illegally transfers users’ personal data to China. The two US tech giants must now review the request promptly and decide whether to block the app in Germany, she added. DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment. Apple and Google were not immediately available for comment. According to its own privacy policy, DeepSeek stores numerous personal data, such as requests to its AI programme or uploaded files, on computers in China. “DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users’ data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union,” Kamp said. “Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies,” ...