National ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen has joined the calls for the cabinet to honour a pledge to grant asylum to Afghan guards who worked with the Netherlands before the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Van Zutphen said he had been contacted by veterans who were angry that the government had gone back on a promise to take in a “defined group” of 145 guards who did not work directly for the Dutch government, but via agencies.

A parliamentary roundtable meeting last week heard that Afghans who worked with western governments were being targeted by the Taliban. Some had gone into hiding or fled to other countries, while others had been murdered.

“These people are in danger,” Van Zutphen told NRC. “The Taliban regime knows exactly who has been working for western armed forces and there are enough stories of guards who are living in hiding every day, about people who have been murdered.

“It is inhumane to say: we promised one thing, but now we think it’s actually too expensive.”

Asylum minister Marjolein Faber, defence minister Ruben Brekelmans and foreign affairs minister Casper Veldkamp said they had made a “different assessment” of the circumstances from the previous cabinet.

Human rights

They warned that around 4,500 people, comprising 900 guards and their families, could claim asylum on the same terms as the 145 guards unless the rules were tightened.

Several experts have disputed those figures on the grounds that many Afghans who would be eligible have already fled to other countries or been killed by the Taliban.

Van Zutphen described the ministers’ reasoning as “incomprehensible, offensive and a violation of human rights”. He said the current government could not go back on a promise without good reason. “A decision is a decision.”

He added that the Afghans could challenge the government’s refusal to take them in in the courts.

“In legal terms this is a promise that gives people grounds for a claim, I think,” he said. “But for me it’s mostly about the moral side of the case.”