Hoekstra: cabinet is doing everything to get left behind Afghans

The cabinet is doing everything it can to pick up the Afghans left behind. According to Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs), the possibilities for reception in the Netherlands, money or political risks do not play any role in this process.

There are still almost 1200 people in Afghanistan who have to be transferred to the Netherlands. 330 Afghans in so-called third countries are also waiting to be picked up. The House debated the state of affairs regarding the evacuation of Afghans on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the NOS reported on the basis of documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that an offer from the Pakistani airline PIA to evacuate three hundred people from Kabul had been rejected last September. This happened partly because “financial and political risks of harm” could arise.

Pakistani offer

Hoekstra called the formulation “very unfortunate”. According to him, safety has always been paramount when collecting people from Afghanistan. He has not been able to find out exactly what the formulation refers to in his ministry. Possibly because of the fear that such a large group would be attacked, he said. It was very unsafe in Kabul at the time.

In retrospect, it may have been decided to accept the Pakistani offer, the minister said. “The Americans have succeeded.”

doubt

Especially with Kati Piri (PvdA) and Jasper van Dijk (SP) doubts remained about the explanation of the minister. He emphasized that the cabinet “will spare no effort” to collect the people from Afghanistan. “It takes a lot of time, effort and money. And quite rightly so.”

The cabinet will explicitly ask the Ruys Committee, which will evaluate the evacuation from Afghanistan, to investigate this issue.