The federal government is gradually gaining an overview of how many local workers have already come to Germany and who is still hoping to be accepted.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on Friday that since the Taliban came to power in mid-August, 259 local workers had entered the country with their families, a total of 1204 people.

A total of 1,435 local workers entered the country between the beginning of 2013 and September 13 of this year.

Helene Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Alexander Haneke

Editor in politics.

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The number of family members who came with us could not be found on Friday, on average there are four family members, so that the total number of local workers with families who came to the country should be around 7,000 people.

Since the evacuation mission began, 5,404 people have come to Germany.

Among them are 4559 Afghans and 522 Germans.

Most of them, namely 4,587 people, had come from the country on evacuation flights by the Bundeswehr by the end of the airlift from Kabul.

House searches of local staff

But thousands are still hiding with their families in Afghanistan and are waiting for an opportunity to leave the country, including many former local members of the Bundeswehr, the Federal Police and German development aid. According to estimates by the federal government, the total number of those entitled to protection, including their families, is around 50,000. This week, the Federal Ministry of the Interior issued a residence permit for 2,600 people at particularly high risk, the majority of whom are in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Doha. These include human rights activists, artists, scientists and journalists.

The spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office assured that it was the Federal Government's goal to help German nationals, local staff and those seeking protection who had received a letter of acceptance to leave Afghanistan. In addition, they are in close contact with Pakistan and Qatar, which have already organized civil flights. But for many of those who are still hiding in Afghanistan, hope is fading. Former local officials report from Kabul that the pressure of persecution from the ruling Taliban is growing. House searches are becoming more common.

What course the regime will take there overall and what that means for the people in the country is still unclear.

The supply situation is extremely tense.

On Thursday, the UN special envoy for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, met the new interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and talked to him about the humanitarian crisis.

Haqqani had given assurances that the work of UN personnel would not be hindered, the Taliban later announced.

The interior minister is considered to be one of the most powerful Taliban leaders and is the head of the infamous Haqqani network, which has been blamed for numerous bloody suicide attacks, including on UN facilities.

Friendly, but without promises

The Haqqani family was also at the center of rumors surrounding Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had been suspected for days that he was injured or even killed after an argument with Haqqani supporters. On Wednesday evening, Baradar appeared in a television interview and announced that he was fine. But the film sequence wasn't exactly suited to dispel the doubts that Baradar was at least being sidelined. He sat rigidly on a sofa and read mostly ready-made sentences from a piece of paper.

According to rumors, after the new cabinet was introduced, Baradar was furious that he had not been appointed head of government as everyone expected. Baradar is said to have blamed Haqqani for this. There are various theories as to why. Either it is because Baradar is seen as a critic of Pakistan and the Haqqanis have close ties to the neighboring country, or because the military leaders, like Haqqani himself, had asserted themselves against the diplomatic faction from Doha. As head of the political office in Doha, Baradar was considered the diplomatic face of the Taliban until the seizure of power.

In the past few days, however, the foreign minister of the transitional government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, was present. He had also been a member of the negotiating team in Doha and was able to play freely on the field in Baradar's absence. On Tuesday he answered questions from journalists at a press conference. He strictly adhered to the Taliban's strategy of being as friendly as possible towards the West, without making any concrete concessions.