Maas to Afghanistan: exit only with acceptance of admission

Foreign Minister Maas wants to continue campaigning for local Afghan workers to leave the country – but only if they have been accepted from Berlin. Uzbekistan will also help with the transit.

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas only wants to help those people who have been accepted to Germany to leave Afghanistan. “We are only concerned with this group of people,” emphasized the SPD politician after talks in Uzbekistan, which, as Afghanistan’s neighbor, is a first port of call for those seeking protection from Afghanistan.

The government in Tashkent had agreed to cooperate with the group of people defined by Germany. The federal government is concerned with the transit of people who are to be flown to Germany. “Beyond that, we have not made a request,” said referring to the debate on the admission of all Afghan refugees to neighboring countries. Uzbekistan is currently rejecting many refugees from Afghanistan at the border.

Talk to China and Russia

Maas emphasized that it was important to talk to China and Russia about the crisis in Afghanistan. Efforts are being made to “bring all the important international players to one table, and it will be important to have Russia and China on board”. Unlike the western states, the two countries are still represented with embassies in Kabul after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. According to Maas, an Afghanistan conference of the neighboring countries is also planned. In addition to Uzbekistan, this also includes Tajikistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and China.

According to Maas himself, he does not want to speak directly to the Taliban. The Federal Government’s interlocutor for the Islamists is diplomat Markus Potzel, who is currently negotiating with representatives of the new Afghan rulers in the Gulf emirate of Qatar. “This is the channel that we use.” Maas will be in Qatar on Tuesday and Wednesday and will also meet Potzel there, who was supposed to be sent as an ambassador to Kabul in August.

10,000 people on exit lists

Maas also described it as a very difficult task to get people overland from Afghanistan in the second evacuation phase after the end of the military flights. For one thing, you need guarantees from the Taliban. On the other hand, one must avoid naming public collection points, as in Kabul. There were then tens of thousands waiting there who did not belong to the group that wanted to evacuate Germany. The Federal Government wants to support people seeking protection from leaving the country by land to neighboring countries, but also by air via Kabul Airport.

There are more than 10,000 Afghans on the Federal Foreign Office’s exit lists. These include former Afghan employees of the armed forces or ministries – the so-called local staff – and people in particular need of protection such as human rights activists or women’s rights activists. In addition, there are their family members. As things stand now, there are more than 40,000 people who are to be admitted to Germany – if they manage to leave the country.

How many local staff have been flown out so far?

At the same time, Maas rejected a newspaper report according to which only comparatively few local forces were flown out of Afghanistan by the Bundeswehr during the evacuations. At the airlift, significantly more than around 100 local workers were evacuated, he said. The passenger lists for evacuation flights from Kabul are currently being compared with partner countries. It will therefore take a while before there is a clear overview.

The “Welt am Sonntag” reported that only a few local workers were flown out during the German evacuation mission. The sheet relied on figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Accordingly, there were only around 100 local workers with their families among the 4,500 people who had flown out.

In addition, “Zeit” and “Spiegel” reported that 189 people in need of protection who were on the lists of the Foreign Office were only able to leave because the private rescue initiative “Kabul Airlift” had brought them to the airport. There they were then flown out by the US military.

Trip to five countries

The Foreign Minister is currently on a trip through five countries that are participating in efforts to get people in need of protection to leave. Yesterday he had already promised financial and technical assistance in Turkey for the reconstruction of the airport in the Afghan capital Kabul. Maas also promised support to the neighboring countries of Tajikistan and Pakistan, which he also plans to visit.