Criticism has grown over the Germany’s unsuccessful evacuation of Afghan helpers after the Taliban had seized Kabul on Tuesday.
Bild, the best-selling magazine in Germany, criticized the government for leaving behind local staffers who risked their lives for the country.
The magazine story titled “Germany’s withdrawal from Afghanistan” narrated how the government prioritized wine and beer over local staff evacuation.
The daily reported shipping around 65,000 beer cans and 340 wine bottles to the country while evacuating its army from Afghanistan in late June.
Although the Taliban was approaching, Germany has not granted visas to hundreds of Afghan staff and their family members, nor evacuated them immediately.
The daily highlighted in a news analysis that the government seems to consider beer and wine worthier than locals risking their lives.
Christoph Hoffmann, an opposition Free Democratic Party lawmaker, was among the critics.
Hoffman slammed the foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, for prioritizing beer over Afghans who worked at German ministries for several years.
“It’s a shame the federal government has failed to assess the situation in Afghanistan,” Hoffman said
Germany’s response
Hoffman had asked Maas at a Parliament meeting about governmental plans to evacuate the Afghan helpers.
The latter said the Afghan government and the Taliban are likely to continue negotiating peace for a while.
Mass rejected the opposition lawmakers’ calls to bring any Afghan staff to Germany, including those who worked without a contract.
During a debate on TV, Mass said granting visas to the Afghans and their families would have sent a wrong message.
“Then we would be talking about not 2,000 people, but 20,000 people,” he said.
Mass added that Germany does not want to begin a new refugee crisis.
Germany sent three planes to evacuate the rest of the diplomats and Afghan staff on Monday.
However, only one plane landed in Afghanistan due to the chaos at the airport.
The authorities redirected the other two planes to neighboring countries.
In the past weeks, Germany has evacuated about 2,000 Afghan local staff, according to the government.
However, over 10,000 stayed behind, including locals who worked for German development agencies, NGOs and media organizations.
Additionally, human rights activists and lawyers were also still trying to flee the country.
