More effort on the part of the IND for Afghan evacuees
All applications for asylum from Afghan evacuees at reception centres will, as much as possible, be dealt with on-site by special teams of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). This effort already applied to the reception facility at the Willem Lodewijk van Nassau barracks in Marnewaard (Zoutkamp) but is now also being extended to the other reception centres.
At all locations, the evacuees are pre-registered by the IND. After that, the Royal Netherlands Military Constabulary will take care of formal identification and registration. In parallel, the IND screens the evacuees in the context of public order and national security. As soon as the quarantine period has expired, IND employees can start the hearing in the asylum procedure as quickly as possible.
There is a team of IND employees available to process the applications. The IND team will work on a project basis. The team includes experts who in recent years have already implemented the so-called 'Arrangement for Interpreters' [Tolkenregeling], as a result of which Afghan interpreters and their families have been granted asylum since the Dutch mission in Uruzgan. All staff also have experience in hearing vulnerable people.
Decisions
Currently, a so-called suspension of decisions and temporary stop on departures apply, which means that, in principle, no decisions are taken on current and new asylum applications. Moreover, the periods for making a decision will be extended due to the uncertainty of the actual situation in the country of origin.
In a letter to the House of Representatives*, the State Secretary for Justice and Security announced on Tuesday that the suspension of decisions and temporary stop on departures does not have to stand in the way of a decision on an asylum application. Where possible, the IND will therefore reach a decision, also during the suspension and stop referred to.
Schiphol
The IND employees at the border customs office at Schiphol are also still actively helping the evacuees. In addition, the two so-called International Liaison Officers in Tbilisi and Islamabad continue to work to support the evacuation there.
Contact
For questions about evacuation from Afghanistan, don't hesitate to contact the central government crisis team at +31 247 247 or via e-mail at kabul@minbuza.nl. The crisis team is available day and night, seven days a week, and registers all applications.
For more information, please visit Rijksoverheid.nl: Afghanistan | Rijksoverheid.nl.
* Only in Dutch available.