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Germany to take in more of its Afghan staff as NATO mission winds down
Germany said on Friday it was ready to take in more local staff who have been working for its military in Afghanistan as NATO’s mission there winds down.
The decision follows calls for Berlin to accelerate the process by which hundreds of Afghans who worked for the German military can resettle in Germany because of fears for their security if they stay in Afghanistan.
Abandoning a plan to admit only Afghans who had been employed by Germany for the past two years, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said all local staff who are at risk and have worked for the German military or security forces since 2013 will now be eligible to come to Germany.
“The two-year deadline has been lifted,” he said.
Seehofer cited new findings on the security situation in Afghanistan for the decision. He said his ministry would not pay for any flights of former Afghan staff to Germany.
NATO is leaving behind tens of thousands of Afghans who worked as civilian employees for foreign militaries as it winds down a mission that began after the Taliban were forced from power following the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
At the start of June, the Taliban assured those Afghans of their safety, but few felt reassured.
According to a report by Spiegel news magazine, Germany so far has granted approval to around 400 former Afghan employees and their close families to come to Germany.
In April, the German forces still employed about 300 Afghans as interpreters and in other jobs, the defence ministry said.
Since 2013, Germany has admitted nearly 800 Afghans at risk in their own country after working for the foreign military, as well as about 2,500 family members.
Sadai Banowan, a women-run radio station in Badakhshan province has been shut down for playing music during the holy months of Ramazan.
Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for information and culture in Badakhshan province, told the UK’s Guardian that the station had violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramazan and was shuttered because of the breach.
“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” said Ahmadi.
Station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation, saying there was no need for the closure and called it a conspiracy, the Guardian reported. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she said.
The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says Daesh has been destroyed by the security forces in the country and is not as big a threat as it was a year ago.
In a recent interview with Voice of America, Pashto, Mujahid said that the Afghan security forces “since August 2021, have arrested and imprisoned around 1,600 to 1,700 Daesh militants and have killed more than 1,100.”
The remarks came as the IEA usually downplays the presence and the threat of Daesh militants in Afghanistan.
Mujahid said Daesh hideouts had been destroyed across the country, including in Zabul, Kunar and Jawzjan provinces, and that Daesh fighters were mostly supported by the previous government. Some of them escaped from the prisons during the regime change.
However, he added that the Afghan security forces either killed, arrested, or imprisoned them.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the past few months including one last month close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which left six people dead and dozens wounded.
The Ministry of Interior says the special forces from the ministry and the 209th Army Corps of Al-Fatah carried out an operation and rescued a businessman who was kidnapped a month ago in Balkh, Mazar-e-Sharif city.
The ministry said on Twitter the trader was abducted in the first district of Mazar-e-Sharif city by kidnappers and a ransom of $300,000 was demanded for his release.
Two of the kidnappers were arrested in this operation, the officials said.
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