Court rules Netherlands not obliged to evacuate 42 Afghan embassy guards

The Dutch State is not required to bring 42 Afghan men who worked as guards at the Dutch embassy in Kabul before the Taliban took power in August 2021, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled Tuesday.

They guards argued that because of their work, they face danger in Afghanistan and that the State must therefore bring them to the Netherlands. The guards were employed by a local company, which the State contracted for security services. The Court of Appeal rejected the Afghan guards’ claim on appeal.

A subdistrict court judge in The Hague had previously ruled that the Dutch State had a duty of care and that the Afghan guards should be brought to the Netherlands.

However, in the appeal proceedings, the court found that under Afghan law—which governs the relationship between the State and the Afghan guards—there is no duty of care requiring the Netherlands to bring them to the country.

The guards also cited protections under human rights treaties to which the Netherlands is a party. The court said that to invoke these treaties, the Dutch State must have legal authority over the guards. Since the Dutch government has no legal authority in Kabul, the treaties do not apply. The court noted that the Afghan guards worked on the outer perimeter of the embassy grounds and lived in their own homes in Afghanistan under the authority of local authorities, not the Dutch State.

The guards further argued that the State violated the principle of equality by evacuating guards with Hungarian nationality, who also worked for the Dutch embassy, but not them. The Court of Appeal rejected this argument, noting that the Hungarian guards were EU citizens and already had access to the European Union.