Our Mission

For two decades, Germany and its Western partners in Afghanistan have tried to build a free, secure and democratic Afghanistan. This was only possible with the help of a courageous Afghan civil society. Judges, security forces, teachers and many other Afghans have worked for a new Afghanistan. When Germany and its Western partners decided to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, we abandoned our Afghan allies.

We cannot reverse the political decisions of the past. We can, however, become aware of our responsibility: Germany has a responsibility to our Afghan allies. It is Germany’s duty to support them as best we can in their flight from Taliban violence and to give them a new, safe home.

We are a civilian initiative that is aware of and accepts this responsibility towards the Afghan people. We have already evacuated nearly two thousand people with the help of your donations and our outreach, and we have supported another thousand people in their evacuation. And we are not stopping. Since the Taliban came to power, the German government has not managed to evacuate all the people it has promised to take in. On top of that, tens of thousands of threatened Afghans – teachers, judges, athletes, employees of the security forces, employees of Western organisations and many more – are waiting without a promise of admission. While the German government does not fully accept this responsibility for these people, we as a movement of civilians fill this gap.

We have become a contact point for threatened Afghan*s, have networks on the ground, know the best evacuation routes and are campaigning in Germany for the admission of threatened people. We work every day on evacuations and for a promise of admission for Afghan*s at risk.

You are our strongest allies in our work. Our work would not be possible without your interest, your commitment and your financial support. The scope of our work also depends on our financial means. Please get involved and inform as many people as possible. The more people donate, the more acutely threatened people have the chance of a new, safe home. Above all, permanent donations help us to plan, evacuate and help in the long term. That is why we need you, as allies of the Airlift.

Our success also depends on your political pressure. Germany must finally become aware of its responsibility for threatened people in Afghanistan and implement evacuations unbureaucratically and quickly. To this end, Germany must reorient its current policy. Support us in this, get loud and make things clear with us:

• We need a federal admission programme that does justice to the situation in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of people are at risk due to the deployment of the Bundeswehr alone. Furthermore, we must not forget the people who worked for subcontractors, were active as media workers or campaigned for human rights. Every person at risk has a right to a safe life – regardless of whether they have a direct connection to Germany or not.
• In order to do justice to the current situation, we must continue to allow threatened people to be admitted on the basis of §22 of the Residence Act. This paragraph gives us the necessary leeway to evacuate people who have worked in civil society for a democratic and free Afghanistan in various forms, regardless of whether they can prove a direct connection to Germany.
• We need to act faster and less bureaucratically to finally end the suffering of the people. For this we need a visa-on-arrival procedure instead of subjecting people to never-ending bureaucratic hurdles and thus preventing evacuations.
• We must not ignore the precarious situation of the Afghan civilian population. Since the Taliban came to power, the Afghan population has been exposed to a dramatic famine and existential economic crisis. We must resolutely confront this humanitarian crisis and provide support at the local level without propping up Taliban rule.
• We must not forget the internally displaced and refugees in neighbouring countries. Germany must provide immediate humanitarian aid to significantly improve the situation of these people.

It is shameful how much time has been wasted, it is shameful that so many threatened people remain stuck in Afghanistan. We have to make sure that people are not left behind. We can talk a lot about who we want to be. It is in our actions that we show who we are.