More Dutch and Afghans evacuated from Kabul, are now in Qatar

Destroyed tanks, abandoned in a field in Afghanistan. Photo: Depositphotos.com
Destroyed tanks, abandoned in a field in Afghanistan. Photo: Depositphotos.com

In total 67 Dutch people and Afghan nationals with links to the Netherlands have been evacuated from Afghanistan on two planes chartered by France and Qatar, the foreign affairs ministry has told broadcaster NOS.

The group included four Dutch nationals and their families. The rest were either interpreters or worked for the Dutch in Afghanistan in another function, NOS said.

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this week that people who did work for the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan were being targeted and executed by the Taliban. At least one person who worked for the Netherlands is thought to have been killed.

The evacuees will be brought from Qatar to the Netherlands shortly, the foreign ministry said on Twitter.

In August, the Netherlands brought some 2,500 Dutch and Afghan nationals out of Kabul, before it fell to the Taliban, but hundreds of people are known to have been left behind. Last week, one group started legal action against the Netherlands in an effort to speed up their evacuation.

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