Refugees from Afghanistan: Laschet: Don't repeat the “mistakes of 2015”

The takeover of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan sparked a debate in Germany about how to deal with the expected influx of refugees.

In the Union in particular, they want to prevent a situation like the one in 2015 from happening again shortly before the federal election.

At that time, because of the civil war in Syria, large streams of refugees had moved to Europe and Germany.

Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Konrad Schuller

Political correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.

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Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet said on Monday after a meeting of the CDU governing bodies that the "mistakes of 2015" should not be repeated. By this he meant the withdrawal of the international donor community from financing refugee camps in the region around Syria, which was shaken by civil war. Now “humanitarian aid on site” must be given. He opposed sending the signal that “Germany can accept everyone in need”. The Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, demanded that Germany should accept refugee contingents "in the five-digit range".

Laschet said at the meetings of the CDU's governing bodies that not only must an uncontrolled situation at German borders be prevented, but that it must be ensured beforehand that people from neighboring countries do not even move.

The FAZ learned this from participants.

The CDU chairman said that international aid from UNHCR and the World Food Program must be adequately financed.

Merkel stands behind Laschet

In the extensive discussion in the Presidium and Board of Directors about Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel supported Laschet, according to groups of participants. The Chancellor also made it clear that she expected a growing number of refugees, reported the AFP news agency. "Many people will try to leave the country," said the Chancellor. "We should do everything we can to help the countries to support the refugees." The topic will "keep us busy for a long time".

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said they were preparing for “migration movements” from Afghanistan.

She did not name an order of magnitude.

The Foreign Office said that Germany was already one of the biggest supporters of neighboring countries like Iran or Pakistan, where many Afghans lived.

The federal government is in contact with the organizations there to talk about aid.

Cross-party international cooperation was called for.

Laschet expressed the expectation that the EU Commission would prepare for new refugee movements.

The CSU chairman Markus Söder said in the “Bild-Talk” that Germany and Europe could not take over the “whole worries of Afghanistan”, because “the Americans are now also primarily challenged”.

SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz did not want to commit himself on Monday to a number of refugees who should come to Germany from Afghanistan.

The main thing is to support Afghanistan's neighboring countries, he said.

You should now be made offers.

The mistake of leaving these states alone should not be repeated.

At an election campaign appearance in Frankfurt (Oder), the Greens chairman Baerbock said that Germany now “has to set up clear quotas with other NATO partners, especially with the Americans, with the Canadians, but also with the European NATO partners, in order to keep people safe bring to".

The federal government must do everything to bring all people to safety "who have supported the NATO troops in recent years".

"Contingents in the five-digit range"

Overall, Baerbock demanded “contingents in the five-digit range” for Germany alone. Not only those who were "directly employed" by Western institutions, such as interpreters or engineers, but also subcontractors or "civil society actors" had to be rescued. Baerbock called "freelance journalists or women's rights activists who have campaigned locally to ensure that girls can go to school". Former EU employees should also get help. "It cannot be that the individual member states, including the German federal government, do not feel responsible for getting the local staff of the EU mission out of Afghanistan."

In the event of major refugee movements, said Baerbock, one should already think about “how to prepare better than in the situation in Syria” six years ago. One has to talk to the NATO partners about this. At the same time, Baerbock criticized the government's policy. The fact that the Foreign Office had been warned "for weeks" and yet "nothing was done" shows that the Federal Government and the Office had "closed their eyes to reality".

AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen spoke out in favor of accepting local Afghan workers and their relatives in Germany. "Yes, we have a moral duty, as far as we can to save those Afghans who worked directly for us and are now in extreme mortal danger," Meuthen wrote on Facebook. The AfD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel, called for the right to asylum to be suspended in view of a wave of refugees.