Germany’s Protestant Church will donate €100,000 to support Afghan citizens who want to sue for the right to immigrate to Germany.
The money will come from funds donated by churchgoers during mass, the so-called collection.
Yesterday, Bishop Christian Stäblein, refugee commissioner of the German Protestant Church, announced the donation after meeting with representatives of Kabul Luftbrücke (Kabul Airlift), a German NGO that tries to facilitate the migration of Afghans to Germany.
“Caring for people in need and helping them is at the heart of Christian ethics. The Protestant Church does not abandon those seeking protection and their families. Germany has given them its word, so we are now helping to ensure that these people get what they are entitled to,” Stäblein said.
“We are donating €100,000 from collections to the Kabul Airlift to support the legal proceedings of those affected and to secure their humanitarian care,” he added.
The bishop said the Afghans supported by Kabul Airlift had risked their lives and the lives of their families for German values and interests.
“The Federal Republic of Germany has promised them protection and granted them a binding offer of admission [to Germany],” Stäblein said.
The NGO was tasked by former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens Party) with identifying so-called Ortskräfte (local helpers) – Afghans who had worked for or supported the German Army during its peacekeeping mission in the Central Asian country – and to facilitate their emigration to Germany after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021.
More than 36,500 Afghans have already moved to Germany under the scheme. More than 1,900 are reportedly still waiting in Pakistan for transport to Germany.
The government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to stop immigration through the programme earlier this year with limited success. Many Afghans have sued for the right to move to Germany in the German courts, aided by NGOs such as Kabul Airlift.
On multiple occasions during the past few months, Germany was ordered to organise transport for Afghans from Pakistan and accept them as refugees. Only yesterday a charter flight from Islamabad carrying 193 Afghan immigrants touched down in Erfurt.
Germany has offered Afghan families payments of more than €10,000 if they remain in Pakistan or return to Afghanistan voluntarily.
As of today, only 62 people had accepted the offer, according to the German interior ministry.
