The evacuations appear to be a goodwill gesture on the part of the Taliban, which those in power in Afghanistan expect something in return, such as diplomatic recognition. It comes in two groups, one with eleven passengers for the Netherlands and the other with 56 passengers. The first group traveled on a military plane from Qatar that had transported relief supplies to Afghanistan on their way there. The latter group traveled on a chartered plane through France, which on Friday reported 300 people had been evacuated.
According to the foreign ministry, this concerns four people with a Dutch passport, 63 people with an Afghan passport and a ‘link to the Netherlands’. By the latter, the ministry means that they worked as interpreters during the Dutch missions in Afghanistan.
Doha Road
More than 300 people have been evacuated on behalf of the Netherlands via the so-called Doha road in recent weeks. There are still about 2,000 people on the Dutch evacuation list. This is a much more limited number than the House of Representatives originally wanted. People who worked for the Netherlands in Afghanistan through subcontractors are no longer on this list. According to the State Department, the reason is that the October 11 Afghan letter from outgoing Minister Ben Knapin and the discussion about it in the House of Representatives set a standard that these people were not qualified because they were not directly employed by the government. Embassy.
On a TV show one day Marjane Kamstra, the Dutch ambassador to Qatar, said the evacuation has become more difficult because people who qualify for it often do not have a travel document. It is also difficult during evacuations to become clear only at the last minute how many places may be available for evacuees to the Netherlands. These people should then be ready to leave immediately.
The regime’s spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on Twitter that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was working hard to create a “new chapter of positive relations” with the West. In this context, a delegation from the European Union and fifteen countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, was consulted on the 1st of December in Doha, Qatar. There it was about humanitarian aid and the crisis in the Afghan health care system.
