Hundreds risk being left in Afghanistan as evacuation deadline nears

A year after the Afghan capital Kabul fell to the Taliban, hundreds of people who worked for the Dutch, either for the embassy, military or aid groups, are still waiting to be evacuated.

The Dutch government said last month it aimed to bring out everyone who qualified for evacuation by the end of September. However, a spokesman for the foreign ministry has now told Trouw it is unclear if that deadline would be reached.

The Volkskrant, which claims 600 people on the evacuation list are still waiting, says in its report the evacuations will stop, potentially stranding hundreds of people who worked for the Netherlands. Hundreds of other people who should also be entitled to leave are living in limbo, the paper said.

The paper reports on the case of two men who worked for Dutch journalists by setting up interviews and acting as interpreters and who have been denied a route out of Afghanistan.

Even though judges in The Hague ruled that they were not on the evacuation list ‘pretty much by chance’, they will not be brought to the Netherlands, the foreign ministry has said. Neither will the widow of an army interpreter, or a women’s activist who has lived in hiding for a year, the paper reported.

Kabul

Over 2,000 people have been brought to the Netherlands since Kabul fell, but many of them are still living in emergency refugee accommodation and have been unable to get on with their lives in the Netherlands because of the shortage of regular housing.

Some have been moved from refugee centre to refugee centre since their arrival a year ago.

And in June, website Nu.nl reported that Afghan nationals who worked for the Dutch embassy in Kabul and are now in the Netherlands as refugees have all been sacked and told they have to pay part of their redundancy package towards their keep in refugee centres.

Pakistan route

Last Friday, a charter flight carrying 184 people arrived in the Netherlands via Pakistan. Some 700 people have so far been evacuated via Pakistan.

The biggest problem with bringing people out of Afghanistan is their lack of travel documents, the foreign ministry said.

MPs are due to debate the situation facing people left behind in Afghanistan in October, the VK said.