Dutch Foreign Minister Kaag quits over Afghan refugee crisis

Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag resigned on Thursday (September 16), after a majority of parliament said she had mishandled the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan last month, Reuters reported.

According to the report members of parliament from across the political spectrum said Kaag bore responsibility for the government’s slow response to the surge of the Islamic Emirate and for failing to prepare the safe passage of thousands of Afghans who could have been eligible for asylum in the Netherlands, Reuters reported.

“Your chamber has decided the Cabinet acted irresponsibly,” Kaag said. “The minister must go if her policy has been rejected.”

Dutch military planes evacuated around 2,100 people from Afghanistan to neighbouring countries in the last two weeks of August, and almost 1,700 of them had the Netherlands as their final destination, the report said.

But hundreds of Dutch citizens, many of Afghan origin, and an unspecified number of Afghans who worked for military missions, news media or non-governmental organizations were left behind as they were not able to reach the airport.

Former diplomat Kaag served as U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon in 2015-2017, and before that headed a U.N. team overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.

According to ReutersDutch Foreign Minister her left-leaning D66 party was one of the main winners in general elections last March, but efforts to form a new government have so far stalled.