That is what director Pim Kraan of aid organization Save the Children says to RTL Nieuws. They are very concerned about Afghans who have worked for Dutch organizations in the past and who are now facing death threats in Afghanistan. For the time being, they are not receiving any help with the evacuation to the Netherlands. “It concerns a group of 120 people in total.”
“These are people who are really threatened. We have to smuggle these people to a different address almost every night because they are in danger. We are constantly trying to get people to safety.”
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Last week, in the parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, the cabinet announced that it was unable to do much for these people. The numbers of emails and people involved are too large. The government now wants to transfer responsibility to the UN refugee organization UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“As a result, our people end up between two stools. The responsibility seems to have been delegated to UN organizations,” says a spokesperson for aid organization Cordaid, also one of the major Dutch aid organizations.
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Cordaid is very concerned about employees of Afghan partner organizations that they have supported with Dutch funding. It would mainly concern women’s rights activists and people in high positions who work on topics that the Taliban are not happy with. “In total, this concerns a group of about 20 individuals, not counting the family members.”
Wrong signal
Cordaid understands that it is difficult to bring people to safety, but believes that the wrong signal is now being sent. “Delegating responsibility to UN organizations is the end. The Netherlands says it will help about 70 people according to the Belhaj motion, but many more need to be helped.”
According to Kraan of Save the Children, it is about the ‘political unwillingness’ of the cabinet. “The evacuation plans had been shelved for months. They just waited far too long to take action.” When the evacuation finally started, according to him, the focus was mainly on people with a Dutch passport and insufficient attention was paid to the Afghan personnel who helped the Netherlands.
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He also says that in the short term it is difficult to mean anything to them. “It’s extremely difficult now, it should have been much sooner.” He is particularly critical of the cabinet’s lack of sense of responsibility. “It is not possible that they are now throwing it over the fence at international aid organizations.”
‘Not tens of thousands of Afghans’
In addition, the aid organizations were surprised by the government’s statement that tens of thousands of Afghans would be involved. “It concerns a limited group that does not come close to the number that was mentioned in the parliamentary debate,” says Van den Berg.
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According to a spokesperson for the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan (DCA), which helps improve livestock production in Afghanistan, the situation is very unclear. “You don’t know where you stand.” They submitted a very long list of staff members and their relatives who wanted to leave to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. “We left the choice to the staff whether they wanted to be on that list. Everyone wanted to leave the country. Many people are afraid of what awaits them and their families.”
‘Pretty powerless’
However, according to the spokesperson, his people are less at risk. “That is because of the work they do. So the ministry does not give priority to that. People who work for politically oriented organizations or women’s rights, for example, are much more at risk. But many people have not been evacuated.”
“The cabinet is quite powerless. They cannot take a plane to Afghanistan, for example, because no Dutch plane can land. That should be via other countries, such as Qatar. It is difficult to cross the border. Foreign Affairs cannot do much at the moment. do. They don’t have the power.”
But according to Kraan, other options can always be explored. “For example, you can try to evacuate people through neighboring countries.”
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