Two years since the fall of Kabul, German promises to Afghans remain unfulfilledPremium

Two years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, German programme to provide asylum for refugees is proving insufficient

August 15, 2021 is a date that’s etched in the memory of most Afghans. It was the day the Taliban took over Kabul’s Presidential Palace, thereby becoming the de-facto ruling government of Afghanistan.

For 30-year-old former Kabul resident Mansour Haidari, it is still a nightmare he finds hard to believe. Mr. Haidari used to work at one of Kabul’s well-known five-star hotels. “Nobody thought the Taliban would come back to power, especially after 20 years of seeing improvements in Afghanistan,” said Mr. Haidari from his Berlin home.

On April 14, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the complete withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan would be completed by August 31. The Taliban began to capture more Afghan territories from May onwards.

“When the Taliban took over Herat, that’s when people in Kabul got alarmed. At first, we thought this act of capturing territories was part of the U.S.-Taliban’s Doha peace negotiations. But when Mazar-i-Sharif was captured, Kabul residents realised that everything was over,” said Mr. Haidari. The day Kabul fell, recalls Mr. Haidari, the streets were empty of cars, there were massive lines outside banks as people wanted to withdraw money and very soon Afghan police were replaced by Taliban militants.

Entrepreneur Matiullah Rahmaty, 28, was still working at the startup incubator he founded in Kabul when the Taliban arrived. “As per the analyses I’d read, the soonest we expected the Taliban to reach Kabul was December 2021. But everything happened so fast that it left us confused,” said Mr. Rahmaty, who now lives in the North German city of Luebeck.

Both Mr. Rahmaty and Mr. Haidari left Afghanistan with their respective spouses within months of the fall of Kabul. They arrived in Germany via Abu Dhabi, where they stayed in a refugee camp as they finalised their paperwork and secured the right visa.

According to the UNHCR, more than 1.6 million Afghans fled their country following the Taliban takeover in 2021. Around 2% of those have been admitted in Germany.