Afghans at risk: Where to seek help

Germany has taken in about 20,000 former Afghan support staff and their family members since January 2022. Most were people working for the Bundeswehr and in development cooperation jobs.

However, Germany continues to face problems helping Afghan former employees and others who remain in danger under the Taliban regime. A parliamentary committee of inquiry in Germany is investigating why these problems exist and why there was no suitable plan to rescue local staff when the Taliban took back power.

InfoMigrants has been receiving a large number of messages from people who are in danger in Afghanistan or neighboring countries, many of them in desperate need of help. Unfortunately, we are not involved in applications or migration procedures and have no influence over who is able to come to Germany.

In March the German government suspended the issuing of visas to Afghans under the so-called ‘Federal Admission Program’, which is for people involved in civil society organizations and others at risk, because it was concerned about fraudulent applications. Procedures have since resumed, but they have been criticized as being far too slow.

If you are in Afghanistan and you are at personal risk because you worked in the fields of human rights, women’s rights, justice, politics, media, education, culture, sport or academia, you should contact the civil society organization or agency where you worked. You will also find information here:

https://www.bundesaufnahmeprogrammafghanistan.de/bundesaufnahme-en

Some non-government organizations based in Germany that can help are:

Kabul Luftbrücke

Email: info@kabulluftbruecke.de

Patenschaftsnetzwerk Afghanische Ortskräfte e.V. (Sponsorship network for local Afghan staff)

Email: info@patenschaftsnetzwerk.de

Pro Asyl (Network of refugee and asylum seeker advocacy organizations)

Email: proasyl@proasyl.de

If you previously worked for NATO or ISAF, contact them directly. For NATO the email address is mbx.afglch@hq.nato.int

If you worked for the Bundeswehr or German development organizations, you should send an email to one of the following:

• Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt)

Email: okv@kabu.auswaertiges-amt.de

• GIZ – German Development Organization (Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit)

Email: okv-afghanistan@giz.de

• Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung)

Email: okv@bmz.bund.de

• Defense Ministry (Verteidigungsministerium) / Bundeswehr

Email: RSMESEinsWVStOKV@bundeswehr.org*

*Note: Requests to this email address will only be processed if you have worked for the Defense Ministry in the past. Former local staff of the Defense Ministry usually have a registration number (91-xx-xx-xxx or G xxxxxx), a work contract, and a letter of termination, which you will need to present.

For other counseling and protection inquiries, try:

• UNHCR Afghanistan

https://help.unhcr.org/afghanistan/

Protection hotline: 0791990225, 0790691746 and 0704996168 (Toll free and available on all working days from 8:00am-4:00pm) or Protection email (afgkaprt@unhcr.org)

• Awaaz

Home

Helpline: 410 (toll-free and available seven days a week)

Important to note:

It is not safe to send documents containing your personal information: please do not send them to InfoMigrants.

Never accept an offer to buy a visa for Germany. This is fraud and will result in your losing money.

Please delete posts from your social media accounts that may put you at risk, such as photos that show you serving as locally engaged staff or with the Bundeswehr.