The Netherlands did worse than other NATO countries such as Canada and the United States in expelling the population of Afghanistan. This is clear from the research of Sarah de Jong, a Dutch scientist working at York University in the UK. “The Dutch government accepted the mistrust of the Afghans,” De Jong told the NU.nl.
Released Wednesday Report De Zhang compares the way eight NATO nations have handled the refugee crisis in Afghanistan, which the Taliban unexpectedly seized power in August 2021. Thousands of Afghans then tried to flee the country, leading to chaos at the airport in the capital, Kabul. Many of them are Afghans who have served in NATO missions in the country or worked at embassies.
The report shows that NATO countries have not aligned their policies with former Afghan workers. As a result, Afghans who were equally at risk were treated differently by each country.
The Netherlands did not perform well compared to other countries. According to De Jong, the emissions started late, and only with translators who met the stringent criteria. For a long time it was not clear to those translators and their families where to report. They had to prove who they were, which became a major bureaucratic hurdle for many, while they were known to the Ministry of Defense for many years.
De Jong’s report follows an initial assessment by Leiden University in January. This confirmed that the pace of the Dutch government was “not high for a long time” and that the process in the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) was “a little short”.
In February, the cabinet appointed a committee to investigate the chaotic discharges. The results will be submitted to the House of Representatives by May 2023.
The Netherlands set up an unnecessary bureaucratic plant
According to de Jong, the Dutch policy was characterized by the distrust of applicants for a residence permit from the outset. According to him, an unnecessarily complex bureaucratic plant was set up in the Netherlands in which the Afghan translator was not the center and IND staff acted as “gate guards who did not allow anyone”.
The bureaucratic attitude of the Dutch authorities towards the translators before the fall of Kabul made the expulsions unnecessarily difficult. “Before August 2021, getting a passport is safe, easy and cheap,” he says.
De Zhang also criticized the fact that the Netherlands did not allow Afghans, who had served for many years in the Dutch army or the Dutch government, to take in large numbers of family members (parents or unmarried sisters, mostly housewives). A country like Canada followed a very broad policy in this regard. In addition, countries such as the UK, US and Australia immediately grant permanent residency permits to their former employees. In this way, people get assured about their future, while the Netherlands initially offers a residence permit for five years.
One of the biggest mistakes the Dutch government has made, according to De Jong, is closing the possibility of applying by email for transfer to the Netherlands. He calls this a “panic reaction” that it is impossible to expel Afghans who have worked for Dutch organizations or the Dutch government for many years and are still in Afghanistan.
‘Allow Afghans who have not yet reported’
“Now the matter seems to be under control. The House is getting elegant tables showing how many applicants have already been transferred and how many are still in Afghanistan,” says De Jong. “But that’s a false assurance.”
“In fact, according to Salima Belhaj’s original proposal, many Afghans still deserve to be expelled, but they can no longer show that they want to be expelled. That mistake needs to be corrected compared to the Dutch.
De Zhang also hopes that the Netherlands will extend a more cordial welcome to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked why he had never visited Afghan translators and guards, and why the 31-year-old former translator’s application for a scholarship was rejected because the maximum age for such a scholarship was 30 years. “Didn’t those people serve for many years to lead the Dutch army in Afghanistan into insecure conditions?”
He points to a country like the United Kingdom, where government propaganda Warm welcome Launched and the British Ministry of Defense also splits the campaign New hopeSomething that has not yet begun in the Netherlands.
