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Berlin: A new group of Afghans who had been promised refuge in Germany arrived in the country on Wednesday, the latest to escape months of limbo in Pakistan.

An interior ministry spokesman told AFP that 28 Afghans landed at Hanover airport in the early afternoon.

The Afghans were accepted under a refugee scheme set up by the previous German government which was frozen after conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in May.

Since then around 2,000 Afghans have been stuck in Pakistan, where they have been threatened with deportation back to Afghanistan.

Some of those affected have mounted successful legal challenges against the German government, forcing the authorities to allow them entry.

A first group of 47 Afghans who won their cases arrived in Germany earlier this month, and those who came on Wednesday had also been successful in the courts.

According to the initiative Airbridge Kabul, set up to help those affected, the latest group — five men, 10 women and 13 children — arrived on a commercial flight from Islamabad.

However, around 250 Afghans who had been waiting to go to Germany have been deported from Pakistan in recent weeks.

A foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that none of them has as yet been able to return to Pakistan.

The German scheme was aimed at Afghans who had worked with German forces in Afghanistan or who were deemed at particular risk from the Taliban, for example journalists, lawyers and human rights activists.

Since Merz’s conservative-led coalition government took power in May, it has put the process on ice as part of a wider push to toughen immigration policy.

Thousands of Afghans waiting in Pakistan to resettle in the United States and several other Western countries are facing a similar predicament as sentiment toward refugees hardens.

Pakistan has been mounting its own crackdown on Afghans without residence permits since 2023, with officials insisting the country cannot be a “transit camp” for those waiting to resettle in the West.

 ISLAMABAD: Traders in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) announced ending a two-month-long protest near the country’s border with China on Wednesday, after the federal government accepted their demands and announced significant tax exemptions for the region’s residents. 

GB’s importers, exporters, small traders, customs clearing agents and members of the area’s local chamber of commerce launched a sit-in protest in late July at the Sost dry port. Protesters demanded the government exempt traders from taxes as the semi-autonomous region was a “non-tariff” area and therefore should be exempt from sales and income taxes. 

The protest had brought trade between Pakistan and China via the northern Khunjerab Pass to a halt, with the movement of people also adversely affected. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee on Aug. 17, headed by Energy Minister Sardar Awais Leghari, to resolve the crisis. 

Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial explained at a news conference that previously, duties and consumption taxes used to be collected from GB traders at the Sost port near the border with China.

“While there is no consumption tax for GB, we did not have a mechanism to ensure that the exemption is offered only to the local population,” Langrial told reporters at the news conference. He was flanked by Leghari, GB Chief Minister Hajji Gulbar Khan and Senator Saleem Mandviwalla.

“Under the new mechanism, sales tax, income tax and federal excise duty will no more be collected at the border, but custom duty and regulatory duty will still be collected,” he added. 

As per the agreement, a copy of which is available with Arab News, the tax exemptions will only be offered to local firms registered with the GB government. The total amount of tax exemptions shall not exceed Rs4 billion [$14.34 million] per annum.

The GB government will now implement the agreement and ensure that its various clauses are implemented.

Ashafaq Ahmad, a leader of the region’s traders who is also the chairman of the GB Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed the deal. 

“We are thankful to the government for granting us tax exemptions and hope the written agreement will be implemented,” Ahmad said. 

He called on traders to resume cross-border trade activities at the Sost border starting Thursday, expressing hope that the tax relief would rejuvenate commercial momentum and strengthen regional trade ties. 

Faizullah Faraq, GB chief minister’s spokesperson, told Arab News that the agreement would impact trade worth over Rs100 billion [$358.42 million] between Pakistan and China through the Sost dry port. 

He said last year, the government collected around Rs16 billion [$57.35 million] in taxes from the Sost border alone.

Speaking at the press conference, Mandviwalla said the prolonged protest had worried Pakistan and China. 

Pakistan’s trade with China is worth around $20 billion but the balance is heavily tilted in Beijing’s favor.

The commerce ministry this week told a parliamentary panel that Pakistan’s imports from China peaked at $20.8 billion in 2020–21, against exports of around $3.1 billion.

Ministry officials told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce that figures from last fiscal year (2024-25) show that Pakistan’s imports from China stand at $17 billion against the country’s exports to Beijing, which were recorded at $2.7 billion. 

The committee voiced deep concern over Pakistan’s widening trade deficit with China and highlighted the need to shrink it through value addition measures and institutional reforms.