It is not the Netherlands’ fault that the Afghan interpreters who can be evacuated need a passport. That is a requirement that the Taliban make to anyone who wants to go to the airport in Kabul, says outgoing Foreign Minister Knapen. “It’s force majeure.”
The Netherlands does not necessarily agree with this requirement, but as long as it applies, the Netherlands has a duty to warn interpreters about this, Knapen believes. “These people need to know that it doesn’t work that they buy a plane ticket from a travel agency and then leave the country,” he says.
Knapen responds to reporting of the NOS that a large part of the 2000 Afghans who are allowed to come to the Netherlands received an e-mail in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs them that evacuations without a passport are not possible.
Nearly impossible
Many Afghans do not have a passport, as it has been virtually impossible to apply for one in recent times. This has become even more difficult since the Taliban took power. Last summer, Afghan evacuees were allowed to travel without a passport, but then the defense organized the flights and a different regime applied at the airport.
Knapen says that the Netherlands is trying to talk to the Taliban and is trying to exert pressure through the Islamic countries of Indonesia, Pakistan and Qatar. SP MP Van Dijk believes that the cabinet should do everything in its power. “There needs to be a lot more pressure on it,” he says. “It is the golden art of negotiation, but I am convinced that a settlement can be devised.”
Wife and children
PvdA MP Piri: “We can increase the pressure with other European countries and the Americans and Canadians together. People who are most at risk are precisely the people who do not dare to apply for a passport from the Taliban.” Interpreters often still have a passport, but their wives and children do not. Even then they are not allowed to leave the country.
Piri sees the possibility of giving people the choice to reach a neighboring country by land and to evacuate them from there. But that also entails risks to which the government does not want to expose those involved through such a call.
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