Fear of the Taliban: 350 local workers leave “Safe Houses”

In Kabul, around 350 local workers have left their collective accommodation organized by a German non-profit organization. The “safe houses” are only death traps, said the director, Grotian. The Taliban systematically searched houses.

Because they were no longer safe, around 350 local workers in Kabul had to leave their collective accommodation organized by a German non-profit organization. This was announced by a former Bundeswehr translator in Mazar-i-Sharif to the dpa news agency.

Accordingly, the local staff received an order to leave their three “Safe Houses”, said the former linguist. First the ZDF magazine “Frontal” reported about it.

The translator said they moved out of their homes around noon (local time). There was information that the Taliban, who searched houses from Sunday evening (local time) in the course of their de facto takeover of power.

“No more way to save you!”

Therefore, the manager of the “Safe House” asked to leave the accommodation as soon as possible. Now the approximately 350 people would all live individually in Kabul. “The German government has no way of saving you”, it said loudly “Frontal”. And further: “Leave the safe house immediately!”

FAZ journalist Livia Gerster shared a video on Twitter. A translator who worked for the German special unit KSK, among other things, can be seen there in a video. He accuses:

If the Germans had told us a month ago, or at least two weeks ago, that we would not take you with us, that we would not have helped you, then we would at least have been able to flee to Pakistan. But now we’re sitting here and we’re just nailed down.

“Cruel and terrible”

The chairman of the sponsorship network for Afghan local workers, Marcus Grotian, confirmed the termination of the safe accommodation. “I broke up the safe houses, which are only death traps,” he wrote on Facebook. Just three hours later, he posted:

Local staff report that 30 minutes ago the Taliban were in one of the safehouses, looking for local staff. These were empty because we closed the safehouses 4 hours ago.

“It’s cruel and it’s terrible,” said Grotian at tagesschau24. The local staff would beg for help and rescue. They would hope the Taliban don’t kill them. Grotian’s bitter objection: “In Kandahar it probably only worked suboptimally.” Hope is not an operation planning for him, “it is very bitter”. He has no idea how one can still support the people. The flights planned so far would be too late or too few.

Government criticized in the past

In the past, Grotian had repeatedly criticized the federal government for its dealings with its local helpers in Afghanistan. These are being taken out of the country too slowly.

The Bundeswehr started with evacuation planes, which, in addition to the embassy staff, are also supposed to bring other German citizens and local staff who have worked or are still working for the Bundeswehr or federal ministries in Afghanistan to Germany. At first, however, no machine was able to land in Kabul.