Waiting at Kabul Airport: “There is simply nothing here”

The Afghan Aref S. worked as a local employee for the Bundeswehr. He is waiting at Kabul airport to be flown out – and reports on desperate people, false hopes and overwhelmed security forces.

Aref S. is angry. “We were up here all night. Everyone was up. Children were crying. There are no toilets, there is nothing here,” he says. S. is at Kabul Airport, at the north gate in front of the military area.

“The Bundeswehr called us: Please come to the airport immediately. They emphasized that you should come as soon as possible,” he says. “But when we came here, we all had to stay up all night. With our children, sisters, wives, mothers. They get sick here. There is no blanket here, there is nothing to eat, there is simply nothing here.”

False promises attract people

The journalist S. is a former local employee of the Bundeswehr. He worked for a media center in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, where he was instructed by Bundeswehr officers. S. wrote texts and made videos for the local population – and is therefore probably at risk.

He has been in Kabul for five days with his wife and little daughter. At first it was not clear whether he was even on the list of those to be protected. Now he knows, but it doesn’t do him much good. Because there are just too many people here.

“It’s not the fault of the people standing here in front of the north gate,” says S. “It’s the problem with the guy with the loudspeaker, the US and German soldiers, telling people that everyone has a chance is going to get to the airport. ”

Not endangered, but desperate

Even potato dealers and greengrocers who are in no danger at all come to the airport and clog everything, says S. “They are not in danger, they are not local Germans. That is the problem.”

The Taliban security forces do not seem to be preventing anyone from coming to the airport. There are checkpoints, but if you want, you can get through – and that’s why there have been riots for days. There are many people from the provinces, they have heard that there are flights abroad. They are often not endangered, but desperate.

Overworked Afghan security forces shoot in the air, sometimes just over the heads. You’re trying to get the crowd under control at least a little. There are also injured people, people who fall, but nobody reports any targeted shots at people.

Leaving local staff often does not work out as planned

If you really want to be flown out, you get a call from the Germans, then you should come here at the north gate. If it is clear that he has the authorization, everything can go quickly, said the German quota chief Jens Arlt yesterday to German journalists.

“And then the measures will be taken immediately,” says Arlt. “We call that, so to speak, have the elements that quickly say: I’m there, I’m there with my family. I have the ID, then we’re there. And then we bring in our strengths.”

But that often doesn’t work – and that’s why people like S. are still in danger. It is by no means an isolated case. Several local staff have that ARD studio South Asia portrayed exactly what he says. S. hopes that they can get it under control here – and that he and his family will soon be safe.

I would suggest that the US soldiers say to the guy with the loudspeaker: Stop standing here in front of the north gate. Ladies and gentlemen, please, if you don’t have a passport or identity card, and you haven’t received a call from the German diplomats, then you shouldn’t stand around here. Please go home. Don’t bring your children here, your mothers, your wives. You could get injured, take a bullet, or tear gas. That’s the problem. They could organize the whole evacuation, but they don’t.