Number of Afghans Applying for Evacuation to Germany Increases Tremendously
German aid organisations have said that a chaotic situation has been created as they have received an immensely high number of calls as well as messages from applicants from Afghanistan, AtoZSerwisPlus.De reports.
According to Info Migrants, Axel Steier from Mission Lifeline, which is a charity helping to evacuate Afghans to Germany, said that they receive emails every minute and revealed that by the beginning of November, the organisation has received 17,000 inquiries.
The same source explains that Reporters Without Borders said last week that they had received around 12,000 registration and 3,700 requests for help. Additionally, Reporters Without Borders said that there are hundreds of phone calls, emails, as well as messages on their social media accounts, and have emphasised that they see a growing trend.
For this reason, Reporters Without Borders said that it has decided to temporarily remove the online form for at-risk Afghan media workers, suggesting that the form will be returned once the situation is under control.
Since Kabul fell and the Taliban returned to power, Germany admitted more than 26,000 nationals of Afghanistan and in October it decided to launch a new admission programme to provide for additional 1,000 vulnerable Afghans to be evacuated to the country every month.
The programme air to offer protection to media professionals as well as to human rights activists and those who work in the judiciary, politics, or police.
Announcing the launching of the new programme, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland, said last month that approximately 26,000 local workers and nationals of Afghanistan have been able to use this programme to reach Germany.
The German Minister of Interior, Nancy Faeser, supported the programme and said that Germany is fulfilling its humanitarian responsibility.
“We will continue to assume this responsibility. We have now created a structured framework for the future. On the basis of defined admission criteria, we can offer protection to particularly endangered and vulnerable people from Afghanistan. We are guided by the number of people we have taken in so far,” Faeser added.
The Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, also commented on the programme. She expressed her gratefulness to the committed people that have been helping to save Afghans since last year and said that since this is a difficult situation, there will be no perfect system.
