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Local staff "in the death trap": Bundeswehr man describes the gloomy situation - "Nobody wanted to hear solutions"

2021-08-17T11:27:06.920Z


Has the federal government ignored reminders and proposed solutions? A Bundeswehr chief describes the dire situation of the Afghan local staff in Kabul.


Has the federal government ignored reminders and proposed solutions?

A Bundeswehr chief describes the dire situation of the Afghan local staff in Kabul.

Berlin - The evacuation of German citizens and Afghan local staff from Kabul is extremely difficult.

After the Taliban came to power on Sunday, people are said to be flown out via an airlift between Kabul and the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

They are then to be brought to Germany by charter aircraft.

In the ZDF “heute journal”, Bundeswehr captain Marcus Grotian described the hopeless situation of the local staff in Afghanistan in drastic words.

Afghanistan: Local workers are "in a death trap" in Kabul - no more hope?

The safehouses in Kabul had to be closed. “They were slowly becoming death traps,” explained Grotian, who is also chairman of the sponsorship network for Afghan local staff. The Taliban went door to door looking specifically for local staff, he said. They were advised to go into hiding in the population. An escape from Kabul seems to have become impossible. There is supposed to be an “outer ring of the Taliban” around the airport - “even if planes could land, local staff from outside will probably no longer come to the machines”. He considers it unrealistic that people could somehow get to the airport.

“We always feared that we would get to this point and tell people 'good luck', we warned them.

We showed solutions that nobody wanted to hear.

We have identified problems - and now we are letting 80 percent of the local workers and their families fall into the hands of the Taliban, that is the result. " 

Marcus Grotian, chairman of the sponsorship network of Afghan aid workers in the ZDF "heute journal"

According to Grotian, not a single visa process has started since June.

The local staff stayed in Kabul for at least eight to ten weeks, hoping to find a way to freedom there.

"Now they are sitting in the death trap and that is the result of this political decision," said Grotian, who was stationed in Kunduz himself.

He received 400 to 500 messages from people "whom we can no longer help".

Carlo Masala also believes that the evacuation of local Afghan workers could be difficult.

The Taliban announced that “Afghans are not allowed to leave the country”.

The political scientist from the Bundeswehr University in Munich said on the tagesschau24 channel.

"There is no guarantee that we will get them out"

Afghanistan evacuation: first flight saves seven people - "only those who were there"

Apparently only seven people could be saved in a first flight on Monday.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) spoke in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” about a confusing situation at Kabul airport and “a really breakneck landing” of the German transport plane.

“We had very little time and that is why we only took those with us who were actually there now.

And yesterday, because of the chaotic situation, they couldn't be at the airport in large numbers, ”said the politician.

Meanwhile, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has expressed the expectation that there will be further evacuation flights from Kabul this Tuesday. The situation at the airport has stabilized further, he wrote on Twitter in the morning. "The embassy has therefore contacted a first group of evacuates to make their departure possible." The goal remains to build a stable airlift "in order to bring German nationals, local staff and other people to be protected safely to Germany," it said.

According to Grotian, this aid could come too late for many people who can no longer get to the airport. A report by the ZDF magazine "frontal", according to which the federal government is said to have given up rescuing local workers, caused a stir. An Afghan translator had been informed that the government would not help him to leave the country.

(mbr / dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-08-17

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