In Afghanistan's capital Kabul, local helpers from German organizations are having difficulties getting to the airport for evacuation flights.
Two local staff reported this to the German press agency on Thursday.
On the one hand, the streets to the airport entrances are completely blocked and partly impassable.
On the other hand, American soldiers would not let them in at the entrances.
"The American soldiers only let their people through," said a local agent. At the time the person was called to the airport, there was no one from the German side at the entrance. Another local officer reported that she tried to get into the airport from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. An American soldier had said that someone had to come over and check whether he was really a local German employee. Shots were fired in the air again and again. Tear gas was also used. In addition, Afghans who had no documents blocked access.
There are various entrances to the Kabul airport. Many people are at the entrance to the civil part, which is at the south end of the airport. Commercial flights are processed from there, but these are currently discontinued. At the north end there is an entrance to the military part. Another entrance is about one kilometer east of the entrance to the civilian part. Around these entrances - but also along the blast protection walls that surround the site - thousands of people wait or try somehow to get onto the site.
Since the militant Islamist Taliban came to power, many people have tried to leave the country. Western countries have launched evacuation flights to take their citizens out of the country and local workers on whom the Taliban feared acts of revenge. According to the Defense Ministry, the Bundeswehr alone has flown more than 900 people out of Kabul.