To forget Afghanistan is to pay a high price
Twenty years of involvement and the non-recognition of the Taliban now coincide with oblivion and a focus on social security in the Netherlands. This means that any attention for Afghanistan is couched in the wrong debate. The Red Cross sounded the alarm: ‘the winter in Afghanistan is causing an invisible humanitarian disaster’.
More than two years ago, Dutch involvement stopped, all at once. Leaving tanks and materials behind for the Taliban. Isolating the Taliban has hit the population twice and has only deepened the humanitarian disaster. And potentially even larger groups of migrants are ready to leave the country. To bring Afghanistan closer, to make it almost tangible, I traveled to Kabul. To feel, hear and see what is going on.
I have been preparing my trip for months and making appointments. Everyone wonders why I’m going, already going. With the Taliban in power, a government that we do not recognize in the Netherlands. Wouldn’t it be better if I waited now that it was code red? But that’s the point; Waiting any longer or doing nothing is no longer an option for me. Little attention is paid to the series of earthquakes in Herat. As well as a very emotional appeal from the World Food Program that a huge cutback is in the pipeline now that more than 15 million Afghans already have no food. Not to mention the 3.25 million displaced people and the 5.7 million Afghans who have fled their country, mostly to Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan has started deporting illegal Afghans, who now number 1.7 million out of a total of 4.4 million refugees. Turkey does not want to become a ‘warehouse of Afghans’, Erdogan said. Afghans are not allowed in. And according to Amnesty, Afghans trying to cross the border into Iran are being shot at. So much for reception in the region.
At Dubai airport, in front of the KamAir check-in desk, I stand in a line of men with beards in traditional clothing. I hear them asking each other what that foreigner is doing there now. From the plane I see the first mountains rising. Beautiful. Infinite and rough. After picking up your luggage, the exit hall quickly turns into open air and silence. I see flowers and color. No people, they are only a little further away. From the car I see the first street images. Many checkpoints with armed Taliban, Western clothing has completely disappeared. Few women. Every day is full of appointments. With a descendant of the royal family who participated in the presidential election in 2014. With leaders of the previous regime, such as Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah. With the Ministry of Energy and Water saying that the groundwater level is dropping so dramatically fast everywhere, in Kabul it has already dropped from -30 to -200 meters. That enormous migrations are underway: in one province due to extreme drought and in the other due to floods. The problems with water and energy are so great and urgent that this will only accelerate the humanitarian disaster that is already underway. I have spoken with NGO staff who are struggling to piece together the puzzle of traditional aid that no longer seems to fit in dealing with the Taliban. With the EU delegation, which is the only one with an office from Europe and with an increasingly smaller support base from Europe, the needs are only increasing. With NGOs, talking to families at home.
In the Netherlands, the Afghanistan debate is being conducted far from the freezing cold hunger winter. Attention is now focused on an evaluation of evacuations that did not go well and withholding a perspective, a future for half the population in Afghanistan – the girls and women. With the national elections approaching, anti-migration sentiment predominates. The Israel-Gaza war further polarizes and strengthens sentiment. It coincides with sharply reduced budgets for development cooperation (to be spent outside the Netherlands). The national focus is now no longer just about – ‘what benefit do we get from it economically and internationally?’ – but it now highlights that we must benefit from it A. nationally, namely investing money in the reception of migrants within our borders (this has made the Netherlands the largest recipient of its own development money) and B. internationally. With whom can we make which agreements to keep migrants outside the borders of Europe?
Of the more than 42 million Afghans, 5.7 million Afghans are on the run, seventy percent of whom are accommodated in the region – but on the basis of what agreements?
With the thought of oblivion, hopelessness and the humanitarian disaster(s) on the one hand and the involvement and commitment on the other hand of people and organizations that are now committed to helping the more than 42 million Afghans and Afghans on the run – I left for Kabul. It is important to look at how support for the Afghan population and the development of a long-term strategy can be shaped, with active support and involvement from the Netherlands, because the price will otherwise be too high for everyone.
