The international Afghanistan policy is full of contradictions and setbacks. The situation has not been as devastating as it is now for many years. While the United Nations are planning to subsidize the wages of Taliban fighters with aid funds that protect university facilities, the former local employees of German companies and organizations are dependent on private donations in order to somehow make it possible for themselves to flee.
The Federal Republic has so far promised around 25,000 former local workers to take them in, but so far only around 7,000 have arrived here. That emerged recently from a request from the Left Group in the Bundestag to the federal government. Nevertheless, they are among the happier because they already have their commitments. Tens of thousands of others could be left behind because the federal government has apparently raised the hurdles for recognition. Axel Steier, co-founder and spokesman of Mission Lifeline, an association that rescues migrants from distress at sea, especially in the Mediterranean, raises this accusation.
Since the summer, Steier has been devoting a large part of his time to Afghan local staff who have worked for German companies and organizations and who were no longer able to escape in time after the Taliban invaded. He is in contact with several groups, most of which are still in Afghanistan and are hiding there. Now he has determined that the new federal government has changed the practice and tightened the procedure. “Apparently only those local staff will be recognized who have worked for German institutions in the summer of 2019 or later if they have not submitted a notice of danger beforehand,” Steier said in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung. But very few would have, because they would have risked their termination. “In addition, a few years ago the individual threat situation was completely different,” said Steier.
So far there has been no written reaction from the federal government
Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in the summer that all local staff who had worked for the Germans in Afghanistan since 2013 could expect to be accepted into the Federal Republic. There is still nothing in writing from the new federal government. However, a ministry spokesman admitted this at the government press conference. According to this, those affected would only come into the local staff procedure in individual cases if their contracts were more than two years ago.
Since the evacuation flights were discontinued, the way out of the country has become arduous or virtually impossible for the former local staff. First of all, they have to be recognized by Germany as local employees. That alone is often a rocky road, as many have worked for private subcontractors or organizations that do not belong directly to any of the ministries.
A starvation winter threatens in Afghanistan
If at some point there is a corresponding letter, those affected have to try to get papers. No entry into the Federal Republic of Germany without a passport. The Taliban are carrying out these procedures in waves. Sometimes there are passports, sometimes not. Some have only been on display since December 19. “It will probably continue like this for three weeks,” estimates Steier. He suspects that the authorities will then have to wait again for new blank passports. Bureaucracy in a country with a state of emergency.
A starvation winter threatens in Afghanistan. Lots of people don’t have a job. Those who work often do not get a wage because the banks are no longer paying out any more money. For the former local workers who are hiding from the Taliban, this is doubly dangerous. They live on what the sale of the house and their belongings brought in – and they can be blackmailed because the neighbors who are now in need often know what they used to work. The same is true of 13 former air traffic controllers who secured the airport in Mazar-i-Sharif on behalf of the German armed forces. “They saved our asses,” a Bundeswehr member who was also stationed there told the Berliner Zeitung. The Afghan colleagues secured the last Bundeswehr flights when the Taliban showed up on the tarmac with their mopeds, he says. Together with other soldiers, he campaigned for the Afghan colleagues to be recognized as local staff. That was many weeks ago. But none of them are safe yet. Two have made their way to Islamabad and are trying to get papers there. The others are stuck in Kabul. They went there because they were told that rescue flights were only available from there. And they almost made it into one too. Nearly. On December 27, the first of them will land in Germany with his small family, says Axel Steier. The family had to pay for the flights themselves.
Donations are repeatedly called for on social media
Mission Lifeline is there to help. Donations are repeatedly called for on social media. The association also helps on site, as many local staff run out of money after long months of waiting. Steier sends the donations he collects in small amounts via Western Union so that the refugees can get passports and visas. Others first need a lawyer to secure their claims. Employees of subcontractors are often turned away because they are considered self-employed and therefore not local employees. But a look at the contracts often shows that it is a question of bogus self-employment, said a lawyer for the Berliner Zeitung.
As with Shafiq S. From 2012 to 2019, he installed water tanks for a German company in the province northwest of Mazar-i-Sharif – until they were flared by the Taliban. S. is also stuck in Kabul and is waiting for his approval. A few days ago he wrote on WhatsApp that he was desperate. Although the German company confirmed his information, he has not yet heard from the authorities in Germany. But he doesn’t want to give up hope yet.
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