Since the fall of Kabul, the German Armed Forces report that they have flown out more than 4,000 Afghan nationals. But now it comes out: only a fraction of them are actually local forces who worked for the German Armed Forces and have been in mortal danger since the victory of the Taliban.
The newspaper BILD learned this from a conference between the Ministry of the Interior, the Foreign Office and other authorities. According to the report (as of Thursday), of almost 3,600 Afghans who have been flown out since August 17, only about 100 were local staff, plus about 370 family members.
A controversial point: on Wednesday, the Foreign Office had stated that among the Afghans who had been flown out were “a considerable number of former local staff”.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (67, Christian Democratic Union) had also declared that she wanted “above all” to bring local Afghan forces to Germany.
This plan failed. According to BILD information, a total of more than 13,000 local staff and their family members were granted entry. Only about 3,000 of them could be brought to Germany in the past months and during the evacuation mission of the German Armed Forces.