Thousands rally to demand Germany speed up airlifts out of Afghanistan
Banners and signs were held aloft with slogans such as “Airlift now” and “We have space.”
17 August 2021, Brandenburg, Potsdam: Participants in the rally “Humanitarian Airlift Now – Don’t Abandon Afghanistan’s People” stand with placards on the Old Market Square. Photo: Paul Zinken/dpa
Thousands of demonstrators took part in protests at several German cities on Tuesday to demand the government escalate its operations to evacuate threatened people in Afghanistan.
According to organizers, the largest of the demonstrations was in Berlin where a rally took place in front of the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament.
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Banners and signs were held aloft with slogans such as “Airlift now” and “We have space.”
According to police, 2,100 participants came in the afternoon, significantly more people than the 500 who were registered.
A broad alliance of groups had called for protests in eight cities in Germany. In Cologne, according to organizers, about l,000 people came, also significantly more than expected.
Protesters and rights groups called on Germany to quickly admit Afghans who may face persecution under the new rule of the hardline Taliban Islamists.
They are calling for the government to greatly increase efforts to offer asylum to journalists, women’s rights activists, human rights defenders and others who may now find themselves threatened.
On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany anticipated evacuating as many as 10,000 people from Afghanistan, many of them Afghan support staff for German ministries and the Bundeswehr army, but also lawyers and activists. (dpa/NAN)