Dutch government unprepared for Afghanistan's fall, despite warnings to ready evacuation

The Netherlands was poorly prepared for the fall of Afghanistan and started evacuations too late, even though the Dutch embassy in Kabul urged the government to start working on an evacuation plan eight months before the Taliban took over. That is one of the harsh conclusions of the Ruys committee, which investigated the operation, NU.nl reports.

The Taliban invaded the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 15 August 2021 and seized power. By the time evacuations stopped on 26 August due to a too-high risk of suicide attacks, the Netherlands had evacuated 1,860 people.

As early as December 2020, the embassy in Kabul sounded the alarm about the increasingly worrying security situation in the country. It urged the government to develop options for evacuation. Eight months later, the Netherlands was barely prepared for what was to come.

According to the committee, the Ministries in the Netherlands experienced the situation's urgency differently than those in Kabul. On the day that the Taliban seized power, the Dutch government had a plan to evacuate only 300 to 400 people on commercial flights. A working visit was planned a day earlier to discuss and practice the various scenarios. But reality overtook the plan, exceeding even the Netherlands’ “worst-case scenario.”

The Netherlands and partner countries misestimated the situation, the committee said. There were signals about the deteriorating security situation, but these were “not appreciated” or “consciously or unconsciously” suppressed, the committee wrote.

The evacuation operation that followed was chaotic. There was no good crisis structure, and the involved Ministers - Defense and Foreign Affairs - were more focused on their own responsibilities than working together to get people out of the country. The researchers mentioned the interpreters who worked for the Dutch armed forces when the Netherlands was active there. They were and still are in great danger. The Ministry of Defense acted too cautiously when it came to evacuating them and should have taken responsibility, the committee said.

According to the committee, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Sigrid Kaag, should have had the directing role, and the other Ministers should have given her that role. Prime Minister Mark Rutte could have helped with this.

Gov’t response

The Cabinet “recognizes and embraces” the main conclusions of the Ruys committee, outgoing Minister Hanke Bruins Slot of Foreign Affairs said to ANP. The involved Ministries - Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Justice and Security, which covers Asylum Affairs - will “take further actions” to learn from the mistakes made. “But the biggest possible mistake is to turn a blind eye afterward,” she said. The government will “soon” send a more comprehensive response to parliament, she said.