GERMAN MINISTRIES WON’T EXTEND PROTECTION RULES FOR AFGHAN STAFF

Germany's Foreign Office and Interior Ministry do not want to extend rules regarding protection against threats to local staff in Afghanistan beyond the current two-year time limit, Carsten Hoffmann reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

However, spokespersons for both ministries made it clear on Wednesday that decisions would be made quickly and expeditiously on cases involving local Bundeswehr employees who have asserted threats within the applicable period of the past two years.

"We are currently not planning any fundamental changes to this procedure," said a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry.

Hundreds of Afghans who had worked for the German army, from translators to kitchen staff, now fear acts of revenge from the militants as international troops pull out of the country and are seeking safety in Germany.

The federal government agrees that “we have an obligation to these people who have been working side by side with our soldiers,” said Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Wednesday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said that, in coordination with other NATO countries, ways are being sought to take in local workers who had ended their work for the Bundeswehr long ago. According to dpa sources within the German government, the Defense Ministry has been pushing to examine cases of local staff who left more than two years ago.

Afghan experts have been calling for charter flights to be organized as the weeks until the total withdrawal draw closer. The German government said weeks ago it had streamlined and accelerated the application process for those looking to get to Germany. Germany has said it expects its troops to be gone by July.

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