Exclusive
Status: 08/26/2021 12:18 a.m.
Again and again a former local employee of the Bundeswehr had publicly pleaded for help, then the Bundeswehr ordered the man to Kabul airport, accompanied by the Taliban. There soldiers sent him back home.
The man from Afghanistan who is at issue here had done a lot to get as far as the armed forces at Kabul airport: He had repeatedly pleaded for help in public in good English and uploaded his employment contracts to Twitter to prove that he worked for the German Armed Forces in Afghanistan for years. Journalists in Berlin raised his case in press conferences and during background discussions in the Federal Ministry of Defense.
After all, the Bundeswehr is said to have finally called him to Kabul Airport. It was only after days of pleading and public pressure in Germany that the “Bundeswehr processing center for local forces” was said to have confirmed in an email this Tuesday that he and his family were on the German evacuation list.
This is how the man who worked as a cameraman for the Bundeswehr’s media work in Afghanistan describes it, underpinned by corresponding emails and documents. Accordingly, he then also received sensitive information about a meeting point in Kabul and the possibility of being brought to Kabul Airport in a convoy organized by the federal government. He should decide for himself whether he wants to accept the offer, because, as it was also stated in the letters from the Germans: “This convoy is being controlled and escorted by the Taliban.” That is also evident from the documents.
Rejected by Bundeswehr soldiers
With his wife and two young children, he accepted the offer and drove to the airport in the convoy. There, he describes it, he could have passed the US Army checkpoint. Alone: When, after waiting for hours, he was able to go to the Bundeswehr soldiers, they are said to have turned him away. A Bundeswehr soldier told him after checking his papers that his name was not on the evacuation list. Then he went back with his family and one and three year old children.
Chaos at the airport
Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) had repeatedly asked for understanding in the last few days, pointed out the difficult-to-see situation at Kabul Airport and asserted that she wanted to be generous in rescuing vulnerable people in Afghanistan. The case of the former local staff in Afghanistan now shows how difficult it is even for registered former local staff who are supported by the Bundeswehr to leave the country – even if they rely on the announcements of the federal government and not, like thousands of other Afghans, do their own thing hope for the airport to be rescued.
The case has now caused regret in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin. There, it is said from the ministry, they are currently working flat out on a solution that could bring the man and his family out of the country after all. “All parties involved,” said a ministry spokesman on Wednesday, are currently working flat out to “bring the man back to Kabul airport and fly out.”
The affected man, who is still in Kabul, has not yet received this. He told the WDR by phone on Wednesday afternoon that he still hoped to contact German authorities. It seems clear that the time window for a possible evacuation is becoming increasingly narrow for him and all other local staff, as the evacuation flights of the Bundeswehr from Afghanistan, which are currently still in progress, could end shortly.