People at risk: Baerbock wants to accelerate evacuation from Afghanistan

The German government wants to accelerate the evacuation of particularly vulnerable people from Afghanistan.

For this purpose, bureaucratic hurdles in issuing visas are to be reduced, as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday in Berlin at the presentation of a seven-point action plan for Afghanistan.

There are still 15,000 people in Afghanistan that Germany has agreed to accept.

Among them are 135 German nationals.

Afghanistan is heading "into the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time," warned the Green politician.

Human rights defenders, for example, but also former Afghan local staff from the Bundeswehr, the Federal Foreign Office and the Ministry of Development are particularly in need of protection.

"You have not been forgotten," assured Baerbock.

“We are working flat out to get everyone to safety.” So far, since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, the federal government has brought around 10,000 people to safety, 5300 of whom have been flown out by the federal government.

Large parts of the economy in Afghanistan have collapsed, many people are starving, families in desperation are selling their daughters to buy food, Baerbock said shortly before Christmas.

"Over 24 million people need humanitarian aid this winter in order to survive."

Together with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, they want to remove hurdles in the visa process in order not to lose valuable months in the evacuation, affirmed Baerbock. In certain cases, this could mean digital data collection and security checks before departure and issuing a visa in transit countries or upon arrival in Germany. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) confirmed via Twitter: "We are working on safe and unbureaucratic procedures and will accelerate family reunification from Afghanistan."

Baerbock said that everything had to be done to make travel routes out of the country unbureaucratic. “Because our common goal is to set up not one, but several humanitarian airlifts from Afghanistan to Germany.” In addition, the definition of the nuclear family of people with exceptional commitments and with a view to hardship cases will be approached more openly in order to also have a closer look at the reality of life. This would mean that there would be a larger circle of persons entitled to leave the country.

Aid financed by Germany is provided exclusively by the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, said the minister.

"Because aid has to get to where it is needed most: with the people and not with the Taliban." The federal government offered to participate in a monitoring mechanism so that the money does not end up with the Taliban.

From next year on, the federal government, in close coordination with international partners, wants to be present again with its own staff directly in Afghanistan in order to get its own picture of the situation, announced Baerbock.

"This on-site work is not a political legitimation or recognition of the Taliban regime," she said.

It is about making it possible to leave the country.

In view of concerns about a possible revaluation of the Taliban, there are no signs of Baerbock's trip to the country. In the current situation, this question does not arise, she said. The designated ambassador, Markus Potzel, is having "subliminally" constructive talks. Without keeping channels of communication open, the local people cannot be helped. Baerbock underlined: “That is the complete opposite of recognition by the Taliban. And there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to politically upgrade the Taliban, the de facto government. "One is" obliged to the people in Afghanistan and not to the Taliban. "

The Ampel government made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP had stipulated in its coalition agreement that a federal humanitarian admission program based on the programs in the context of the war in Syria would also be used for Afghanistan.

The paper also states that the recognition of the government in Kabul will be linked “to its inclusiveness and the protection of human rights”.

In particular, they will work for women's and girls' rights as well as for the protection and acceptance of those who are endangered by previous cooperation with Germany.