As of: 08/29/2021 6:16 p.m.
The Bundeswehr has already left Afghanistan and many local staff have stayed behind. Now it has been possible to save hundreds more people – with the help of private actors. An aid initiative makes serious accusations against the federal government.
A few days before the US forces withdraw from Afghanistan, chaos continues around Kabul airport – there are warnings of further attacks. And yet: Last night it was possible to bring more than 300 more people in need of protection to the secure part of the airport – with the help of the German company DHL, which is still active in Afghanistan, as “Spiegel” reported, citing the Foreign Office . According to the federal government, around 140 Germans were among those rescued, as well as local staff and employees of a NATO contractor.
“Zeit” and “Spiegel” also reported that 189 people in need of protection – organized by the private rescue initiative “Kabul Airlift” – were brought to the airport and flown out by the US military, including employees from German media.
Serious allegations against the federal government
The “Kabul Airlift” had already brought several Afghan local forces to safety yesterday – and accused the German government of a lack of support and massive resistance to the prepared evacuation. “With immense effort, we were able to bring 18 endangered local workers from Kabul to safety. 18 lives, and it could have been hundreds more if our rescue operation had not been actively blocked by the Foreign Office,” said a statement on Saturday Website of the civil society initiative was disseminated.
The rescue mission had sent a charter plane to Kabul to fly out those in danger. “We had safe accommodation for hundreds of people, had them officially registered and approved on lists of the Foreign Office, organized a bus transport via the Qatari embassy and could have brought people to the airport and onto our plane within a few hours,” said the initiative .
The federal government “refused to write an email clearing the transport,” it said. The experience leaves one speechless and angry and shows a “bureaucratic and political prevention tactic”, according to the initiators. And: “It was publicly claimed that the plane was welcome, but after landing on site it was clear: Our plane should not evacuate people.”
Berlin refers to chaos and dangers
The German government rejected the allegations as unjustified and referred to chaos and dangers in Kabul as well as blockades at control posts of the Taliban, which had made access to the airport more difficult in the past few days.
With reference to the charter aircraft, it was explained that free seating capacity was never the bottleneck of the evacuation, but the safe transport of those in need of protection to the airport in the Afghan capital.
Media: Bundeswehr only rescues around 100 local workers
The Bundeswehr ended its evacuation mission on Thursday. As the “Welt am Sonntag” reports, fewer local staff were brought to safety with the German rescue flights than previously assumed. Accordingly, there were only just over 100 local staff with their families among the 4500 who had flown out by the middle of the week. Overall, this group makes up around 500 of the 4,500 people who have flown out. The Federal Ministry of the Interior informed several MPs about this. The Federal Foreign Office recently sent acceptance letters to 10,000 local staff.
In view of the confusing evacuations from Kabul, however, it is assumed that several local staff who worked for Germany may currently still be in other European countries. The Federal Ministry of the Interior left a request unanswered, wrote “Welt am Sonntag”. The Foreign Office announced that 5,300 people from Kabul have now been brought to safety.
The German government has come under massive criticism for not having flown out Afghan local workers and other vulnerable Afghans before the Taliban came to power. The departure of the last Bundeswehr aircraft took place on Thursday immediately after a suicide attack in front of Kabul airport, in which, according to high-ranking representatives of the former Afghan government, more than a hundred people died.