Meet the former Afghan minister turned delivery boy in Germany | Globalism

The flight takes six hours from Monday to Friday; From noon to 10 pm on weekends. The master wears an orange dress characteristic of his company, and a backpack in which he carries the orders of his customers.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a job like any other. If there is a job, it’s because there is a certain demand and someone has to take care of fulfilling it,” he says.

Thousands of Afghans recently left their country, after the Taliban resumed, on flights from the coalition forces that have occupied the country for 20 years. More of them are expected to arrive alone in larger groups in the coming months and years.

For years, Afghans were the second largest group of immigrants in Germany after Syrians. There are about 210,000 asylum applications registered in the European country since 2015.

Mr. Sadat arrived months before the Kabul government collapsed. He was the communications minister in his home country between 2016 and 2018. He says he left because he was tired of corruption within the government and found work as a consultant in the telecommunications sector.

In 2020, the security situation in the country began to deteriorate. “So I decided to leave,” he says.

Although he holds both Afghan and British citizenship, he chose to settle in Germany at the end of 2020, ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

In his opinion, the German economy, the largest in Europe, provides him with more opportunities in his sector. It is difficult to find a job without knowing German. The Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures have not made learning easier.

He now dedicates four hours a day to studying the language, before riding his bike to deliver shipments for Lieferando. Sadat earns €15 an hour (about R$92), a modest wage, although well above Germany’s minimum wage (R$58 an hour). He claims that money is able to meet your needs.

As a British citizen, SADAT cannot claim refugee status or benefits. The ex-minister, who does not want to talk about his family in Afghanistan, says he does not regret his decision.

He says the delivery service is “for a limited time until I find another job”.

Smiling, he says the job has helped him get back in shape, riding about 1,000 miles a month. With the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, Sadat believes he could be useful in Germany.

“I can advise the German government and try to make the Afghan people benefit from it, because I can give them a realistic picture of the terrain.”

At the moment, however, he doesn’t have any contacts, so the priority is home delivery.

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