Dozens of people from Afghanistan were expelled from several EU countries this week in the first wave of deportations brought about by a controversial migration deal between the EU and Afghanistan.
On Thursday 34 Afghans were flown to Kabul from Germany. They join another 13 who had been forcibly removed earlier in the week from Sweden and nine from Norway.
Some of the asylum seekers had been in their respective host countries for a matter of years, but their applications had been rejected.
The deal cut in October this year allows EU states to deport an unlimited number of rejected asylum seekers with the Afghan government agreeing to accept them back.
Migrants from Afghanistan comprised the second largest group reaching Europe, with nearly 200,000 asylum applicants being made last year, predominately in Germany and Sweden.
It is understood that the German government has plans to deport some 12,500 Afghans, but not with wholesale public approval as demonstrators protested at Frankfurt airport and some German politicians in parliament held placards which called for an end to the deportations.
While Europe is struggling to cope with the massive numbers of people seeking protection within its borders, those being returned face very uncertain realities in Afghanistan where conditions have deteriorated in the last few years.
Nearly a million Afghans already have been deported or have returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, according to the UN. The country is in economic crisis and jobs are few.
Taliban attacks in some provinces have forced families to disperse. Travel is difficult as some roads are patrolled by bandits.
Returnees with no clothes but western ones and with documents that betray their flight from the country are easy targets for Taliban recruitment or assassination.
The next chartered flight for migrants being taken back to Afghanistan is believed to be scheduled for January.
