BERLIN (AP) – German authorities say they have deported 69 Afghans whose asylum requests were rejected back to their home country.

A plane carrying the men from Munich to Kabul landed in the Afghan capital early Wednesday. It was one of the largest collective deportation flights yet organized by Germany, which has vowed to step up the removal of people who don’t have a right to remain in the country.

The state interior minister of Bavaria, where 51 of the men had been living, welcomed the deportation flight.

Joachim Herrmann noted that unlimited deportations to Afghanistan had recently been approved by Germany’s federal authorities. In recent years deportations to Afghanistan were limited to people with criminal convictions.