Ahmadshah Zalmaan (38) recognizes the unrest. He is a restaurant owner in Rotterdam, but his uncle, aunt, nephew and nieces live in Kabul and Jalalabad. “I have lived in the Netherlands for 24 years and my brothers and sisters also live in Europe. Since the day before yesterday, I no longer have contact with my family and friends in Kabul, I can no longer reach them.”
Zalmaan’s cousin works in Kabul for an American company. “So he’s at risk, just like my niece who is a doctor. Working women are a problem for the Taliban. I don’t know about them. My aunt is elderly, she is normally less at risk, but you don’t know how That is now, it’s all new there.”
Zalmaan came to the Netherlands on his own as a refugee at the age of 15. “I set up my own business here, built up my life. And now I read and see all that misery there, exactly what I experienced 22 years ago. That is very emotional. I talk about it with my wife, she understands what I have although she did not experience the war as consciously as I did.”
A few weeks ago there were already long queues at the office where passports could be applied for in Afghanistan:
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