Criticism from Bundeswehr soldiers: Local forces left behind without protection?

Thousands of Afghans helped the Bundeswehr as interpreters, cooks and informants. After the troops have withdrawn, the local staff now have to fear for their lives. Bundeswehr soldiers demand faster help.

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maaß has promised that there will be additional charter planes. But will that be enough to fly out the local staff from Afghanistan – the Afghan helpers, the interpreters and drivers, the cooks and informants, people who have helped the Germans in recent years? That is completely open.

The federal government reacted far too late to the danger posed by the local staff. This accusation comes from the Bundeswehr. “What I criticize about the German way of dealing with local staff is that we first packed our own things, flew away – and then had local staff in the country,” says Captain Marcus Grotian. “We should have arranged that beforehand.”

Grotian himself was stationed in Afghanistan, in Kunduz. He founded the sponsorship network for local Afghan workers and wants to help those who previously helped the Germans. Grotian and his colleagues organize help for the local staff on their own – and not everyone in the Bundeswehr likes that.

The Netherlands as a role model

It could now take hours because the federal government is acting far too bureaucratically, says Grotian. Other NATO countries would have done it more professionally, the Netherlands for example.

And to prove this, the Bundeswehr captain even mentions a specific case: “Achmat Sultani is an interpreter who has worked for the Bundeswehr and Germany for ten years and in the meantime also for the Netherlands. He has now landed in Amsterdam, with a paid flight, “reports Grotian. “So this is an example of how local workers in other countries get their gratitude paid by being brought to safety.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer criticizes the Afghan authorities

The Netherlands are helping faster than the Germans – not only that has sparked public criticism of the German government’s wait-and-see attitude. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer rejected this earlier this week. She blamed the Afghan authorities for not issuing the necessary passports. However, the question arises as to why other NATO countries were able to help their local staff better.

“We see with the Americans and also with the British, the Dutch, that some of them have reacted more quickly,” says Bundeswehr captain Grotian. He is in constant contact with Kabul – with the so-called safe houses. These are refuges in which Afghan local workers find protection from the Islamists. The money for the escape houses comes from donations in Germany.

“An incredible amount of time has been lost”

It has long been known that the Islamists would classify the Afghan aid workers as traitors. It was also no surprise that the Taliban would take large parts of the country after the withdrawal of the international troops, at best the speed – as Hannah Neumann points out. She is a peace and conflict researcher and has also been a member of the European Parliament since 2019.

“And now the federal government is waking up and considering that it might bring the local staff after all. An unbelievable amount of time has been lost,” says Neumann. “They have built up incredibly bureaucratic processes. And I fear that it will now simply be too late for some of the local staff. And those are our German dead in Afghanistan, too.”

Worry about effects on other missions

The Green politician has experience with UN missions and knows the special need for protection of local staff. The trust of these people is always central, she says – they have to be able to rely on a country like Germany not to let them down.

“Leaving them in the lurch now leaves a lot of disappointment and scorched earth in Afghanistan,” says Neumann. “But it also makes us very lonely if we as Germans go on other missions in the future.”

This could have problematic consequences in other missions. In Mali, for example. In the African country there are currently around 900 soldiers of the German Armed Forces on an international blue helmet mission against Islamists. And they are dependent on local staff, who are always in danger of the Islamists seeing them as traitors. Some will wonder whether they want to work for the German contingent.

1,800 local workers have already been flown out

“In the USA, which of course has more experience with such foreign assignments, the policy is very clear: If we have worked for us, we will bring them to safety when we go out,” says Neumann. “In Germany the approach was obviously: just not one more than necessary. And that’s why we are now where we are. That we are frantically trying to get everyone out – which is actually too late.”

According to the Federal Ministry of Defense, around 1,800 local Afghan workers have now been flown out. But that is not enough, says MEP Neumann. At least 1,500 other local workers are at enormous risk – and so are their families.