His bag with his family's passports and other personal papers was behind the closed gate. When he returned a few minutes later with his family, the gate was closed, the man told NOS. After checking the papers, the soldiers told the man to go get his wife and children just outside the airport gate. There is also a seventh family, whose father made it into the airport to speak with the Dutch soldiers, but ultimately did not make it to the Netherlands. The three brothers and their families are still in Afghanistan. The broadcaster confirmed these stories through voice messages between Ahmed and his brothers, and correspondence between the family and the Ministry of Defense. It later turned out that this brother was indeed on the evacuation list and should have been evacuated, NOS said. Then they said: sorry, then you didn't work for us,' Nesar Ahmed told the broadcaster. He said that he did not have his access pass from that time with him. 'They wanted proof that he worked for the Netherlands.

The third brother had an ID with an English translation and was initially allowed through, but was later sent back again. 'The Germans did have interpreters with them and were checking names very carefully. The Dutch soldiers couldn't read it, Ahmed said to the broadcaster. Once inside the airport, they showed their Afghan ID cards with their names in Arabic script at the checkpoint. He's been living in the Netherlands for two years.Īccording to NOS, two of the brothers waited for hours in an open sewer at the airport on August 24 before Dutch soldiers let them in. A fourth brother, Nesar Ahmed, was the commander of 240 Afghan security guards at Kamp Holland around 2010. The fathers of these families are brothers and worked in security at Kamp Holland, the base in the province of Uruzgan where Dutch soldiers were stationed for years. The other three families tried to reach the airport, but were unsuccessful. Three of the families made it in time and were brought to the Netherlands. The six families who were first sent away from the airport were again notified by the Dutch embassy that they were scheduled for evacuation the next day. As a result, they could not read identity cards in Arabic script, or spelled names wrong when entered into the computer, so that it appeared that people were not on the evacuation list. Three of these families are still stuck in Afghanistan, NOS reports after conversations with relatives of the families and others involved, and based on documents they shared with the broadcaster.Īccording to NOS, the problem lay in Dutch soldiers not always having an interpreter with them when speaking to the Afghan families at the airport. Last month, Dutch soldiers sent at least six families away from the airport in Kabul, while they were on the evacuation list and had been called to the airport for evacuation.

Listaway os