Afghan Asadullah is allowed to stay in the Netherlands with his family for the next five years. Thanks to military officer Roy Tutert from Mariënheem, Asadullah, together with his family, was evacuated from Afghanistan in the nick of time.
“I hope that I can now build the future for my family,” says Asadullah in emergency shelter Huis ter Heide in Zeist. In August Asadullah received a call from the Netherlands. It was Roy Tutert, his old commander at Mazar-I-Shariff camp. At that camp, in northern Afghanistan, Asadullah worked as a handyman for the Defense Forces.
Between shore and ship
“His own company was hired by NATO, but that didn’t keep him on the payroll. When the personnel records were grabbed to arrange the evacuation flights, he threatened to fall between two stools. Asadullah has worked for our troops for over ten years. He was in danger and had to be evacuated,” says Roy Tutert from Mariënheem.
Relieved
“Not even twelve hours after I sent an email to Defense, our application was approved.” And so Asadullah, after a hellish journey through the crowds at Kabul airport, was on Dutch soil a few days later. Together with his wife and four children, he was transferred to the Huis ter Heide shelter. After a screening by the IND, he has now been told that he can stay in the Netherlands for the next five years.
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“My children can go to a good school in the coming years. That’s great, because every father wants his family to be well. I hope that I will soon be able to work so that I can support my own family,” says a visibly relieved Asadullah.
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