Status: 08/22/2021 4:13 p.m.
The development aid agency GIZ wants to pay local workers who want to stay in Afghanistan an annual salary in advance. The FDP and the Greens criticize the offer as “repulsive” and “bitter”. The Ministry of Development defends the approach.
The German development aid agency GIZ pays Afghan local workers who do not want to leave the country an annual salary in advance. The Ministry of Development confirmed a corresponding report by “Spiegel”.
The Afghan employees can therefore decide whether they want to go on one of the evacuation flights from Kabul Airport or not. Those who stay get their annual salary even though they are in fact no longer employed. All Afghan local workers would be “unbureaucratically supported – financially and non-financially,” said the ministry. This included “help with accommodation, departure and – if you want to stay in the country – financial support in the amount of an annual salary to bridge the difficult situation”. The latter was welcomed by the Afghan workers.
Departure is still possible
The development ministry made it clear that the Afghan employees should not be pressured to stay with this measure. For legal reasons, they would have to give an assurance in return that they would not be included in the program for the repatriation of local workers. “Should the local staff change their minds, especially if the risk situation changes, then they can still be put on the exit list,” said a ministry spokesman for the German press agency.
“Just devastating”
According to the “Spiegel”, on the other hand, several GIZ local staff criticized the offer. An Afghan GIZ employee said on the phone that it was “just devastating how the Germans acted”. She has the impression that the Federal Government is primarily concerned with keeping the number of people coming to Germany as low as possible.
Around 1,100 Afghan employees were still working for GIZ until the Taliban came to power. Shortly after the coup a week ago, the federal government completely suspended development aid.
Criticism from the FDP and the Greens
Sharp criticism of the GIZ process also came from the opposition. The FDP defense politicians Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann called it “repulsive” on Twitter and asked GIZ: “What’s wrong with you?”
The Green parliamentary group management Britta Haßelmann called the procedure “bitter”. “Another low point in the actions of the federal government,” she wrote on Twitter.
Humanitarian projects for food security
Meanwhile, Müller defended the decision to suspend development cooperation with Afghanistan. The prerequisites – employee safety and respect for human rights – are currently not in place, he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Many non-governmental organizations are still there and implement humanitarian projects on their own responsibility, for example for food security. “We are in close contact with them on how humanitarian support for the Afghan people can be maintained.”
At the same time, Müller named requirements for cooperation with the Taliban. “The decisive factor is the security of all people in Afghanistan, the observance of human rights and the rights of women. We will measure the Taliban by this,” he said. In addition, a resilient commitment to the safe departure of all local staff who want this is important.
“Inhuman to Separate Families”
Müller called for an expansion of the rescue operation. In development cooperation alone, according to the criteria of the federal government, a potential of 1,800 local workers and their families would have the right to leave the country. According to the previous regulations, Afghan local workers, their spouses and underage children are allowed to be added to the exit lists. “In individual cases it is inhumane to separate families. And that is why that has to be changed,” demanded Müller.