Islamabad in residential district F-7, a quiet area.

Modern bungalows in shady avenues, lush gardens, strong walls.

You could have a good life there.

But in the Pakistani capital, around twenty Afghan residents are anxiously waiting for Germany to keep its promises.

There were clear promises: No one will be left behind who served freedom in loyalty and solidarity together with German soldiers, development workers and diplomats in Afghanistan.

But in the Hindu Kush, disappointment is growing at a country that many trusted, but whose government has long failed to keep its promises.

More than 30,000 people under protection were left behind when the West fled Afghanistan in the late summer of last year.

Some have now at least made it to Pakistan.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Two dozen people who fled the Islamist Taliban regime found shelter in the house of the Naeem family at 35 Street.

Most of them are women traveling alone, mothers with children, orphans and young people who were separated from their parents while fleeing.

When the women talk about their escape experiences, the words soon blur into tears.

But now they are hoping that they will soon be able to leave for Germany.

The confidence is based primarily on the commitment of German volunteers, mostly young people, who were initially made angry by the bureaucracy of the federal government at the time and then activated.

Today it is clear that without them there would be no way out of Afghanistan and no safe houses in Islamabad for thousands of refugees.

"Failure across the board"

Some of the helpers have joined forces, for example with the civilian organization “Kabul Airlift”.

You said at the time: “We are shocked by the developments in Afghanistan.

It's a failure across the board." The fear of a new wave of refugees like in 2015 is greater than the willingness to help, it said.

That has changed.

But if you ask high-ranking diplomats why months pass before the two Kabul university teachers, Fahima and Freba, are finally able to fly out of Islamabad, they quickly turn to Anis Amri and the assassination attempt on Breitscheidplatz.

And about the fact that you have to be careful that a refugee doesn't become a terrorist again.

Fahima and Freba, both in their early thirties, studied and taught sociology and psychology in Kabul.

That was no longer possible under the Taliban:

Full veil, behind the Covid mask like a muzzle.

The teachers had to give up their cell phones.

And they were only allowed to teach women, early in the morning.

Before the men showed up at the university, they had to go home, like almost all women in Taliban Afghanistan.

Now the two belong to the transit community in residential district F-7.

They are accompanied by helpers like Eva Baier, who recently actually wanted to greet Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in the garden of the house in Islamabad.

The minister fell ill during the trip, but her delegation did not want to miss the visit.

And so we met under a tent roof in the garden.

Hospitality characterized the atmosphere, cold drinks were served, ripe mangoes, sweet watermelons.

But what was to be told tasted bitter.

It's still stuck.

The visas come too slowly, the procedures take too long.

About five siblings have been living here for seven months.

The filmmaker Theresa Breuer reports that her colleague Vanessa Schlesinger brought her “from a basement hole in Kabul”.

The father was shot