For years, local Afghan workers worked for the Bundeswehr and German ministries – risking their lives in the process. When the Taliban returned, panic spread. Many remain stuck.
When the Taliban overran the provinces in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, rockets rained down on the residential areas of Mazar-i-Sharif. For the Bundeswehr translator Khosrow Mohammadi it is clear that he has to flee with his family. The visas are ready and a flight is booked. But when they arrive in the capital, Kabul, suddenly nothing works in mid-August. The militant Islamists are already in the city. “When I saw armed men without uniforms, I knew something was wrong.”
In the following days, images of chaos, death and suffering go around the world. Crowds flock to the airport trying to escape. Parents hand their children over concrete walls, desperate Afghans cling to airplane parts and fall from the sky. And international forces are trying to evacuate as many people as possible. “We tried to get into the airport three times,” says 32-year-old Mohammadi. But his wife is pregnant and three small children are with them. “We were worried that something would happen to them.” The evacuation does not succeed at first.
New life with new neighbors
A year after the fall of Kabul, everything is different. “We’re very happy to be in Germany,” says Mohammadi on a dry summer’s day in a small town in Saxony. Old buildings in the baroque style characterize the townscape, while wide hilly fields characterize the surrounding nature. Here the family is happy about the provincial tranquility and the good connection to the neighbors, who sometimes come to drink tea. But the memories of the escape are still very fresh. “There was no specific threat against me, but I was afraid because I had worked with Germans for many years,” Mohammadi describes the months before leaving the country in November 2021.
The fact that the family is here today is also thanks to the local Afghan staff sponsorship network, which made it possible to find a way out via a neighboring country. Because the Mohammadis did not make it on an evacuation flight in the summer of 2021. Calls for help by email to the Foreign Office and many calls went unanswered. “I was scared and then tried not to leave the apartment,” says Mohammadi, who worked at the well-known Bundeswehr location Mazar-i-Scharif from 2010 until shortly before the Bundeswehr left. “I loved my job as an interpreter,” he says wistfully.
Criticism of German arbitrariness
Thousands of former local staff, family members and Afghans who worked for German ministries are still waiting to leave the country. This has become increasingly difficult under the new rulers, but the German procedure has also been criticized. “Our claim must be that all people who are in danger of life and limb have a chance to be admitted,” says Günter Burkhardt, the managing director of Pro Asyl. This is not only a moral but also a legal obligation.
“A society has emerged, especially in big cities, that believed in Western promises. And now they’re letting them down,” says Burkhardt. Who is considered a local employee and is therefore entitled to be admitted is arbitrarily determined. It depends very much on the previous employment contract of the employee. However, he considers the will of the federal government to reform the procedure to be positive. Measured against the German responsibility, the managing director speaks of a “disaster”.
Difficult to leave the country even with a visa
Since the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan around a year ago, Germany has guaranteed a total of 23,614 former Afghan local workers and family members, as the “Welt am Sonntag” reported a few days ago, citing the responsible Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf). . 17,556 people actually entered the country. If those affected are able to leave Germany with an acceptance letter, German missions abroad will issue them visas for onward travel.
According to the Federal Foreign Office, around 21,400 local workers, particularly vulnerable people and their family members have received visas since the Taliban took power. But leaving the country is not easy. The Taliban have repeatedly asserted that they will not punish former members of the international armed forces. At the same time, however, they do not allow anyone to leave the country without papers. Passports are rarely issued. And again and again there are reports of revenge actions against former local workers who regard the Taliban as enemies.
Meanwhile, Mohammadi is attending language courses. Siblings have also left Afghanistan and are spread across the globe. He and his family now have everyday problems, such as looking for daycare places. He also wants to catch up on his medical studies here, which he was unable to complete in Afghanistan. “Life is good now.”
Source: Stern
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