MPs to debate Afghan crisis as efforts to evacuate citizens continue

MPs are returning from their summer break on Tuesday for an emergency debate on the crisis in Afghanistan and the operation to evacuate Dutch citizens from Kabul. Caretaker foreign minister Sigrid Kaag and defence minister Ank Bijleveld said in a letter to parliament that the Netherlands had agreed with the EU to help repatriate ‘a number of members of the EU delegation in Kabul and their family members.’ Around 6,000 American troops have taken control of Kabul airport in an attempt to restore order, after thousands of Afghans fearing for their lives tried to jump on board cargo planes on Monday. As recently as last Tuesday the Netherlands was one of six European nations that criticised the European Commission’s plans for a moratorium on deporting Afghans whose asylum claims had been rejected. The countries’ foreign ministers wrote to the commission to argue that suspending returns ‘sends the wrong signal’ and would ‘motivate even more Afghans to leave their homes for the EU.’ In their letter to parliament, Kaag, Bijleveld and junior justice minister Ankie Broekers-Knol said the speed of the Taliban’s takeover had taken the international community by surprise.