Status: 08/31/2021 7:16 am
Federal Foreign Minister Maas wants to work together in Pakistan to take in refugees from Afghanistan. The Pakistani ambassador to Germany rejected this request in advance.
After the end of the international evacuation missions from Afghanistan, the Pakistani ambassador to Germany refused to accept any further Afghan refugees in Pakistan. “Pakistan is not accepting any more refugees from Afghanistan,” Mohammad Faisal told the Tagesspiegel. However, his country is doing all it can to support Afghans leaving for other countries. The borders would remain open for the time being.
According to Faisal, Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, has already taken in between three and four million Afghans. Now “richer and larger” countries should take in refugees from there, the ambassador continued. He did not want to name specific countries.
The solution to the new refugee problem lies with the states that would have had the say in Afghanistan for 20 years. The international community must speak to the Taliban now to find a solution, he said. There has to be a dialogue.
Maas visits Islamabad
Faisal’s rejection could become a problem for Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD). Today he is traveling to Islamabad and wants to talk about the situation in Afghanistan and help for refugees from the country.
It is another stop on his journey to five countries that play a role in efforts to get people out of Afghanistan. Before visiting Pakistan, Maas held talks in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on Monday. The three neighboring countries of Afghanistan are among the first port of call for people who want to get to safety from the militant Islamist Taliban by land.
Tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for Germany and other NATO countries during the Afghanistan mission have not yet been able to leave the country despite political promises. They fear the Taliban’s revenge. Germany alone has committed itself to accepting more than 40,000 local workers and those in need of protection.
Opposition: “trip is too late”
Criticism of Maas’ approach came from the opposition. “The trip comes a year or two too late,” says Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP) to the editorial network Germany. The talks that are being held today should have been held much earlier. “It becomes clear that there was no strategy.” Germany had become dependent on the Taliban. “The Taliban now have the power to decide what happens to German citizens and local staff.”
Green politician Jürgen Trittin also expressed doubts about the success of the trip. “With this trip, Heiko Maas would like to give the impression that he is doing something,” Trittin told the RND. “But the omissions that were made during the evacuation and the issuing of visas cannot be made up for.” The German government made itself vulnerable to blackmail through its behavior. “This failure has put us in a position where we now have to negotiate with authoritarian rulers like Erdogan and the radical Taliban.”
A total of around 5,000 people have flown out of Germany, including 138 local employees. “Private rescuers have flown around 300 people – that means they have saved more people than Heiko Maas.”