News item | 13-07-2022 | 08:00
A group of 181 people from Afghanistan arrived in Eindhoven last night with a charter hired by the Netherlands. It concerns persons and families who have not been able to leave Afghanistan until now because not all of them have valid travel documents. The Pakistani authorities announced at the beginning of June to make an exception again and to allow these people to travel through Pakistan to the Netherlands. With this promise, the cabinet hopes to be able to transfer as many people as possible who are still eligible for arrival.
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Border Passage
Most of the group’s people have crossed the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan in the past two weeks. Here they were received by the Dutch embassy in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Dutch diplomats helped them further by traveling to Islamabad and then to the Netherlands. It is not yet possible to say how many people can be transferred thanks to the cooperation of the Pakistani authorities, but the Netherlands is committed to transferring the largest possible number of people who qualify.
Exception
The approval of the Pakistani authorities came after months of diplomatic efforts by, among others, Dutch embassy staff. In the near future, the Netherlands will remain in contact with Pakistan to help people who do not have the correct papers to leave Afghanistan. The Pakistani authorities have previously made such an exception. As a result, 329 people could already be transferred to the Netherlands via this route in January and March 2022.