The United States has agreed with the Taliban, the new rulers in Afghanistan, that the Kabul airport can be used to evacuate people until August 31. The Netherlands, together with NATO allies, have consistently argued that this period should be extended, but that does not seem to be an option.
With man and power
In practice, the evacuation flights may have to stop earlier, because the Americans themselves also need a few days to get their 6,000 troops safely out of the country. That is why ‘under increasingly difficult circumstances’ people are working with all their might to evacuate as many people as possible.
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Since last week, more than a thousand people have left Kabul on evacuation flights, who have the Netherlands as their final destination. Of them, 644 have arrived in the Netherlands. In addition to local embassy staff, these include interpreters and their families and Dutch nationals who were still in Afghanistan.
The latter group is, incidentally, considerably larger than expected, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledges. There are still an estimated hundreds of Dutch people in Afghanistan, despite years of negative travel advice and an urgent call to leave at the beginning of this month.
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Last week, the House of Representatives ordered the cabinet to evacuate, in addition to interpreters, other Afghans who may be at risk because of their work in the Dutch service. Thousands of people have come forward, including fixers of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and employees of development organizations.
In this group, 250 people have been designated who actually run an extra risk because of their work. “These people have been summoned to the Kabul airport where they will be helped by our people to enter for evacuation.”
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Dutch soldiers also pick up people who need to be evacuated in the Afghan capital Kabul. According to the cabinet, everything is being done to get people at the airport.
“Some of the soldiers present assist the evacuees to reach the airport,” says a letter from Sigrid Kaag (Foreign Affairs), Ank Bijleveld (Defence) and Ankie Broekers-Knol (Justice and Security) to the House of Representatives.
Securing Dutch people
The soldiers are reportedly not going far into the city. The main task of the military is to protect the Dutch diplomats at the airport, the Dutch aircraft and the evacuees.
At the airport, the military ensures that people who have to be evacuated also enter the airport grounds. Every day, four flights of the Dutch Air Force to Kabul are planned. There is a runway available there and the Dutch soldiers are given half an hour after landing to get the people on the plane.
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