DW staff evacuated from Afghanistan

DW had asked all employees in Afghanistan to go to Kabul as soon as possible when it became clear that the Taliban would take over control. The chances for an evacuation centrally from there by air seemed to be best.

However, due to a variety of reasons, evacuation by air did not work out. The DW families had also waited unsuccessfully for days and nights outside the notorious north gate of the airport in Kabul under dramatic conditions for entry into the secured area.

After several failed attempts, all options were explored to get the group out of the country by another route. The security situation in Afghanistan, and especially at the border crossings to neighboring countries, was very difficult to assess and, moreover, the situation changed almost daily.

DW director general Peter Limbourg: "I would like to thank the German government, the Foreign Minister, as well as the German embassy in Pakistan and many political actors, without whom this evacuation would not have been possible. We also greatly appreciate the strong commitment of the government of Qatar, which has made an enormous effort on behalf of our colleagues. A special thanks goes to the authorities in Islamabad who granted their permission for this evacuation of our staff and their families via Pakistan on humanitarian grounds. This support in an acute emergency was crucial."

For DW staff, this is the first step on their journey to Germany. In Bonn, preparations for their arrival are in full swing. The correspondents from Afghanistan will support the editorial team in Bonn in the intensive reporting on Afghanistan.

With the evacuation of this group of 72 people, DW has achieved its first goal. In Afghanistan, the families of the Bonn-based members of DW’s Afghanistan editorial team are still waiting to leave.

Not only the DW correspondents in Afghanistan, but also the relatives of the editorial staff in Bonn are in extreme danger. Only days after the takeover, Taliban fighters had shot dead a family member of a DW journalist and seriously injured another while searching for the journalist. The Taliban had searched from house to house for the DW journalist, who is based in Germany. Other members of the journalist’s family were able to escape at the last second.

DW is in talks with all the authorities involved in Germany and abroad in order to be able to bring the relatives of the employees of DW’s Dari and Pashto editorial services to Germany as well. The same applies to two DW correspondents and their families, who had temporarily returned to their hometowns after weeks of waiting in Kabul. They are also to be brought out of the country in the next attempt.