🔶 Germany’s offer to Afghans waiting for acceptance: money in exchange for withdrawal

The German government intended to end the process of closing various Afghan admission programs for people at risk by the end of last year. But after eight months, it has still not managed to do so.

According to information from Germany’s first television network (ARD), the German Interior Ministry has now again offered people covered by these programs a payment, provided that they withdraw from the admission program and resign. Such an offer was also made in November last year.

In response to questions from this television channel, the German Interior Ministry confirmed that it has again presented an offer for “administrative and financial support” in order to return to Afghanistan or continue the journey to a third country. In the past, 326 people accepted this offer.

The issue concerns people who fall into three groups and, within the framework of the “human rights list,” the “transitional program,” and the “process for admitting local forces,” have received an undertaking for admission to Germany.

The commitments made under these programs are not legally binding and can be revoked.

The current governing coalition, made up of Christian and Social Democratic parties, does not want to carry out the commitments of previous governments. As the coalition agreement states, it has decided that, in normal circumstances, it no longer has any political benefit in admitting these people.

In contrast, the commitments made under the admission program at the federal level, which was launched later, are legally binding, provided that there are no security concerns about admitting the individuals.

According to the “Kabul Airlift” aid organization, since August 31, emails containing this offer have been sent to twelve families.

The matter involves a three-month “support package,” including a one-time payment as well as provision of accommodation, food, and medical and psycho-social care for three months in Afghanistan.

According to “Kabul Airlift,” the amount of the one-time payment is determined based on the number of family members and amounts to more than three thousand euros for single men and 16 thousand euros for a large family.

The condition for making this payment is to withdraw from the admission process. In the email made available to ARD, it says: “A re-entry into this process at another time is ruled out.”

The deadline to respond to the email is also stated as five days.