Germany has deported a convicted criminal to Syria for the first time since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

Axar.az informs according to the Deutsche Welle, the man was handed over to Syrian authorities in Damascus on Tuesday morning.

It comes after Berlin reached an agreement with the Syrian government allowing deportations of convicted criminals and security threats to take place on a regular basis.

The deported man had served a prison sentence in North Rhine-Westphalia for particularly serious robbery, assault, and extortion, the ministry said.

Earlier on Tuesday, another convicted offender was deported to Afghanistan, following a similar removal last week.

The Afghan national had been imprisoned in Bavaria, including for intentional bodily harm. The ministry said this marked the second deportation of an Afghan criminal within a week.