evacuationThe cabinet is making an ultimate attempt to get a group of about 2000 Dutch and Afghans out of Afghanistan after all. It depends on the cooperation of the Taliban. The Dutch ambassador spoke last night with a representative of that regime.
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Together with coalition parties, a solution is currently being feverishly sought for the group that is entitled to evacuation and asylum in our country according to a widely supported parliamentary motion. The Hague sources are hopeful that ‘an additional evacuation can take place’.
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MPs from VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie had a meeting on Wednesday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ‘think along’ about the ‘practical implementation’ of a motion submitted by D66 MP Salima Belhaj. That motion instructs the cabinet to evacuate and grant asylum to Afghans who have worked for the Netherlands or a Dutch aid organization and who are human rights activists or journalists.
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The cabinet is upset with this Belhaj motion. Since the end of the evacuation mission on August 26, only a few people have been able to leave Afghanistan. For an additional evacuation, five specific groups are being looked at: Dutch people, interpreters, Afghans who have worked for aid organizations, human rights activists and people who were already on the evacuation list but were too late for the last evacuation flights.
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Legal framework
Criteria are now being drawn up for this, a ‘good legal framework’, so that it is clear who is and is not covered. It is unknown how many people are involved. But it would be a ‘manageable’ group of about 2000 people. According to the current plans, anyone who reports later would then have to end up in the regular asylum procedure. “We cannot continue to evacuate people until the end of the days,” said one person concerned.
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Cecilia Wijgers
@caeciliawijgers
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