Evacuation from Afghanistan: Criticism of the UN organization IOM is growing

The evacuation of local Afghan workers came too late and is chaotic. This is possibly also due to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – The criticism of this UN organization is growing louder.

Without local staff like him, the Bundeswehr would have been lost in Afghanistan: Farhad, who only wants to be called here by his first name. For ten years he worked as a translator for the German troops. A few weeks ago, as it gradually became clear that the Taliban would come to power again in Afghanistan, he decided to leave Afghanistan.

“When the Bundeswehr began to withdraw from Afghanistan, they gave us an email address – from the IOM offices in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. They told us that we would send them an email should, so that we can get help with the departure. “

IOM stands for International Organization for Migration, it is part of the UN system. According to its own statements, the Foreign Office in Berlin hires the IOM as a “service provider”. In Afghanistan, for example, the Bundeswehr distributed an information sheet to local staff. It read: “If you want to travel to Germany, contact the IOM in Kabul beforehand.” The IOM then provides information on how to proceed: “When you are allowed to enter” and “whom you have to contact”.

No answer from IOM – until today

Not only Farhad, but also other colleagues, had turned to the IOM and emailed completed documents: “We should fill out two forms, we did that and sent them to the IOM. But unfortunately there was no answer. Until today.”

Farhad is now safe in Copenhagen. He had also worked for the Danish army for a year in the past. She got him and his family out of Afghanistan within 24 hours. The behavior of Germany and the IOM disappointed him, he says.

Marcus Grotian from the “Sponsorship Network Afghan Local Staff” is no different. He is in close contact with local people: “They went there, it was still being renovated. The employees were still being trained and they were told that the first visa processes would begin in mid-August.”

“Speculative Claims” rejected

According to the calculations of his “sponsorship network”, a total of 8,000 people – local workers and their families – would have to leave Afghanistan. However, the IOM offices responsible for them in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country were never physically accessible or unable to work for the local staff. “Personally, I would be extremely surprised if even a visa process was ever started in an IOM office,” said Grotian.

The IOM speaks out on BR-Inquiry “for security reasons” not on the subject of Afghanistan. In writing, the Geneva-based organization only reports: “We firmly reject the speculative allegations about the work of the IOM. Please address your inquiries to the authorities in Germany.”

The Foreign Office emphasizes that over 2,400 visas have already been issued for local staff and members of the nuclear family. The transmission of the travel data before departure was not a prerequisite for entering Germany.

Criticism from lawyers and opposition

Nevertheless, some lawyers criticize the work of the IOM – not only in Afghanistan. The IOM provides a wide variety of services in the context of international migration. The Foreign Office commissioned the IOM, for example, to bring people back to their home countries, to make migration routes “safer” or to reintegrate former Al Shabab fighters into Somalia.

Lawyer Kerstin Müller from Cologne knows the IOM from numerous cases of her mandates: “For example, the IOM is involved in the visa procedures for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan through the Foreign Office and assigns the first appointments for visa applications.” Often, according to the experience of the Cologne migration attorney, the IOM does not forward the documents in a timely manner. For Müller, the reasons for this are not understandable in all cases.

In other areas too, the lawyer finds the organization’s behavior difficult to understand: “It is completely opaque how appointments are made by the IOM, and the IOM does not tell me when documents will be forwarded to the German authorities.” Her verdict: “I’m pretty unhappy with the IOM.”

Federal government: Service not provided

In the case of Afghanistan, even Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer expresses criticism of the organization. In a letter to the members of the German Bundestag, the BR is available, the CDU politician wrote a few days ago that the IOM “could not provide the contractually promised service due to the deteriorating overall situation on site.”

In the rescue of the local workers, not only the IOM failed, but also the federal government, so the foreign policy spokesman for the Greens, Omid Nouripour, in an interview with the BR: “The fact that the federal government is now trying, for example, through the Federal Minister of Defense, to offload part of its own failure to the IOM, is a transparent bluff game.” In his opinion, the federal government bears a great share of responsibility for the fact that to this day people have not been able to leave the country who have also relied on the help of the IOM.

As the Taliban government affirmed, the evacuation should only be possible until August 31. It is now almost impossible for Afghans to get to the airport in Kabul.