Mistakenly deported Afghan asylum seeker to return to Germany

An asylum seeker from Afghanistan who was erroneously deported to his country of origin will soon be brought back to Germany, a spokesperson for the interior ministry announced on Wednesday.

Nasibullah S. was forcibly flown to Kabul along with 68 other deportees in early July, despite the fact that a final decision on his asylum application by a regional administrative court was still pending. Having initially failed to obtain asylum in Germany during a regular application procedure, the 20-year-old launched a legal appeal against the negative verdict which is scheduled to be heard in court in September.

A statement released by interior minister Horst Seehofer afterwards read: "There has obviously been an administrative error at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees," which reports to the interior ministry.

The case of Nasibullah S. is only one of several recent incidents in which German authorities were found to have acted in breach of the law by deporting individuals pre-maturely.

The episode is a source of embarrassment for Seehofer who had publicly boasted about the completion of the single largest deportation flight in German history on his own birthday. The minister said at time that he was delighted to be able to announce the removal from the country of 69 failed asylum seekers on the same day as he turned 69 himself.

Speaking to press on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the interior ministry noted that Nasibullah S.'s return had already been ordered on July 18. Having experienced delays along his journey via Pakistan, the Afghan national is now expected to arrive back in Germany on Sunday. There is currently no evidence of the asylum seeker having committed any wrongdoing or criminal misdemeanours after he first entered the country in the course of the 2015 European refugee crisis.