Former Foreign Minister and current President of the United Nations General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, has defended Germany’s relocation program for Afghan nationals amid criticism from the current German government.
Speaking to “Bild am Sonntag” Baerbock asserted that Germany has an international responsibility to protect individuals facing dire circumstances in Afghanistan, particularly women and girls whose rights have been severely curtailed and those who worked for organizations like the United Nations and the German Bundeswehr and now fear for their lives.
“If we, as the international community, state that the situation in Afghanistan exists, where women and girls are being deprived of all rights, where people who have worked for the UN and for the German Bundeswehr fear for their lives – there is an international responsibility to protect” she stated. “Based on that, the previous government made a decision that we made.
The defense comes in response to comments from her successor, Johann Wadephul of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who recently described the number of commitments made under the program as a “misjudgment”.
