It is unclear how to proceed with Kabul left behind after Kaag and Bijleveld resign | Inland

Those who have not been able to secure a place on the evacuation list in time are ignorant about how to arrange their evacuation. They are referred to UN refugee agency UNHCR, but that has no office in Afghanistan.

21,000 emails with help requests

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received more than 21,000 e-mails with requests for help via the mailbox that has since been discontinued. It is still unclear how many individual cases are involved, and whether they can claim Dutch evacuation from Kabul.

In August, the House of Representatives passed a motion to deal generously with Afghans who have worked for the Netherlands and to grant them evacuation to and asylum in the Netherlands. Such an arrangement already existed for Afghan interpreters and their families. Not all of them have yet been transferred to the Netherlands either. There are probably still 22 interpreters and their families in Afghanistan, the cabinet said last week.

Rutte

Opposition parties are now targeting outgoing Prime Minister Rutte, the replacement ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense (for the time being D66 member Tom de Bruijn and CDA member Ferd Grapperhaus) and State Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol (Justice, VVD).

PvdA, GL and MP Pieter Omtzigt want to know from the cabinet what is now being done to help those left behind in Kabul. In a series of written questions, the parties want to know within two weeks how many people are still in Kabul, how they should contact the government and what efforts are still being made from the Netherlands to get those people out of the country.

Still a lot of unanswered questions

After last week’s explosive Afghanistan debate, which forced Kaag and Bijleveld to leave, there are still many unanswered questions, say MPs Omtzigt and Piri (PvdA). They now want to receive an answer via the written route. For example, MPs wonder whether and when allies have offered the Netherlands to take evacuees with them or to help them in some other way. Earlier it turned out that France already offered the Netherlands in July to take evacuees with them. They also want the cabinet to disclose the written communication between the embassy in Kabul and the ministry in The Hague, and lists of decisions about Afghanistan from the Council of Ministers.

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