In an appeal organised by the German Bar Association, more than 50 groups and institutions said swift action was needed to save the more than 2,000 stranded Afghans from being sent back to their Taliban-run homeland.

The Afghans are part of a group previously offered refuge in Germany but now caught between Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s tougher immigration policy and a wave of expulsions from Pakistan.

The organisations, including Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the Caritas charity, said the government must “drastically speed up” the process of security checks for those who had been accepted under the scheme.

In addition, those who have been approved must be “immediately evacuated,” they argued.

The groups stressed that those at risk included “lawyers, judges, human rights activists, journalists and members of particularly endangered minorities.”

“Germany bears a special responsibility towards the people who have placed their trust in us and whose commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law has now made them targets in Afghanistan,” the organisations said.

Last week, the German government said 450 Afghans waiting to come to Germany had been arrested in recent raids by Pakistani authorities, which have been carrying out a crackdown on Afghans without legal residency.

The German foreign ministry said on Monday it was in contact with more than 200 of those arrested who had been deported to Afghanistan.

The reception scheme was initially set up under the previous chancellor Olaf Scholz after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover.

It was intended to provide refuge to those who had worked with German forces in Afghanistan or who were at particular risk from the Taliban.

However, Merz made restrictions on immigration one of his key promises when taking office in May and his government has put the scheme under review.