‘Shout out Holland’: daughter of Afghan interpreter gets out just in time

A Dutch C-130 cargo plane. Photo: Defensie.nl

The daughter of an Afghan interpreter now living in the Netherlands made it out of Kabul in the last hours of the evacuation after shouting out ‘Holland’ to perimeter guards.

The man, named only as Abdul, worked for the Dutch army in Kabul before leaving with his wife in 2020 after his sons had been threatened by the Taliban and fled the country.

His daughter Amina had spent the last few months on the run in Kabul, moving between friends and relatives’ houses four in Kabul times a fortnight until they became too afraid to shelter her, she told the Volkskrant.

According to the ministry of foreign affairs and immigration service IND, Amina was not eligible to be evacuated because she was an adult and had not worked for the Dutch authorities. But thanks to the efforts of human rights lawyer Barbara Wegelin, she and her children were added to the list.

‘The Netherlands had a duty to help Amina,’ Wegelin told the paper earlier in the week, ‘Abdul helped us out and that has put the lives of his daughter and her family in danger.’

Neither the IND nor the ministry were willing to comment on the case, or whether they has been in contact with Amina. But following an appeal to the government by Abdul in the Volkskrant and Wegelin’s persistent requests Amina’s name appeared on the list of evacuees on Tuesday.

Amina had to undertake a seven-hour trip to the airport in Kabul, where she had to leave the queue at the entrance at the last minute because her children were in danger of being crushed to death, her father said.

On Wednesday the family made it to the safe zone at the airport and on Thursday afternoon Abdul received the welcome news that his daughter and her children were on their way to the Netherlands.

‘I kept encouraging her to show them that she was there, to shout out ‘Holland’, he said.