Just under 1,500 of them are in Pakistan and Iran, while 12,600 are still in Afghanistan, German news outlet NDR Info, which belongs to state public broadcaster NDR, reported Wednesday (May 31) citing an answer from the German Foreign Office to a press inquiry.

According to NDR Info, several thousand more human rights activists, journalists, politicians and other threatened people are currently stuck in the application process of the federal admission program, which was announced last October with plans of welcoming about 1,000 Afghans at risk under the Taliban government per month.

Axel Steier, founder of sea rescue NGO Mission Lifeline, said that the federal admission program comes at the expense of the some 30,000 local workers plus their families who are waiting to be brought to Germany under a separate 'procedure for local workers'. According to the German government, "Germany has a special responsibility towards these people."

"Unfortunately, the federal admissions program is a flagship program, which obscures the situation of the former employees and exposes them to the Taliban," Steier told InfoMigrants. "The fact that this flagship program is not even working properly shows the priority with which the German government assumes its responsibility for allies."

In late March, the federal government temporarily suspended the federal admission program for two months citing security concerns. There were "indications of possible attempts at abuse in the ongoing admission process from Afghanistan," NDR Info reported again citing the German foreign office. Only one case, however, could be described as 'dangerous' ('Gefährder').

According to a ministry spokesperson, the attempts at abuse were discovered during the visa process and were terminated. The program is supposed to commence in June with additional security precautions.

Read more: Report accuses EU of 'staggering neglect' of Afghan asylum seekers

Living in limbo

Among those waiting with acceptance letters in Pakistan and Iran, are Afghan families that have since become homeless. Moreover, they cannot return to Afghanistan due to threats from the ruling Taliban.

One of them is the Afghan politician Feroza Ahmadzai, who received an acceptance letter from the German Interior Ministry last August. For ten years, the Pashtun politician had campaigned in the council of the Afghan province of Logar, primarily for women's rights, and had been threatened with death in writing by the Taliban.

At the end of March, however, her admission onto the program was surprisingly revoked without being explanation, the tagesschau.de reported.

The German government had initiated the federal admission program after evacuating 5,300 people from Kabul in late August 2021 to provide Afghans who were particularly at risk under Taliban rule with a permanent opportunity for admission to Germany on humanitarian grounds.

Those seeking protection cannot directly apply to the program but must be nominated and processed by a number of civil society organizations and NGOs.

Read more: Germany needs to overhaul Afghan admissions program, says Pro Asyl

'Quickest possible resumption' of relocation

The German government is working on the "quickest possible resumption of departures from Afghanistan and visa processing for Afghans with a promise of admission," NDR Info further reported, again citing information provided by the Foreign Office.

The ministry was confident "that in the next few weeks we will be able to implement the adjusted security mechanisms, which also include security interviews, as part of the procedure and resume the procedures accordingly ."

Aid organizations and the opposition sharply criticized the halt to the entry of at risk persons from Afghanistan.

Clara Bünger, a member of the Left Party in the German parliament, stressed that time is of the essence because those affected are in very real danger. "As we have already seen in the past, [a delay] can mean risking lives."

with AFP, EPD, tagesschau.de