Germany grants 2,400 visas to Afghan employees, relatives

German authorities said Monday they have granted 2,400 visas so far to Afghans who worked for the country’s military.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said visas were also granted to their families but that not all of them want to move to Germany immediately, AP reported.

Germany withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan last week after a deployment that lasted nearly 20 years and focused on the north of the country. It had the second-biggest foreign contingent in Afghanistan after the United States.

Breul said procedures have been complicated by the military withdrawal and the closure of Germany’s consulate-general in Mazar-e-Sharif, but said Berlin is trying to work with partners such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Before the military left, 446 local employees and their relatives — a total of 2,250 people — were given travel documents, Defense Ministry spokesman David Helmbold said. At that point, “a relatively small number” of applications remained open, he added.

“Not all of those who received these travel documents wanted to leave straight away,” Helmbold told reporters in Berlin. “There were a number of local (employees) who said, ‘we’d actually like to stay as long as possible in Afghanistan, but we’d like to have the possibility to leave if the security situation escalates.”