AFGHANISTAN said yesterday it would accept the deportation of refugees rejected by Germany, which considers them economic migrants.

Refugees and Repatriation Minister Hossain Alemi Balkhi had opposed the deportation, saying: “The problem that caused them to leave Afghanistan in the first place has not been solved — there is still war, conflict, insecurity.”

But he was apparently overruled after talks between President Ashraf Ghani and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Last week, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere complained of an “unacceptable” influx of “middle-class” Afghans from supposedly safe areas of the war-torn country.

Ambulance workers on the Greek island of Lesbos protested yesterday over budget cuts that have left them with just three vehicles despite the huge influx of refugees. Afterwards they handed out clothes to refugee children.
Meanwhile, Mayor Spyros Galinos said there was no more room to bury those who have drowned trying to reach Lesbos from Turkey.