{"id":130297,"date":"2021-09-13T10:49:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T08:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=130297"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:51","slug":"university-seeks-to-get-students-alumni-and-academic-researchers-evacuated-from-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/09\/13\/university-seeks-to-get-students-alumni-and-academic-researchers-evacuated-from-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"University seeks to get students, alumni and academic researchers evacuated from Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students, alumni and academic researchers are stuck in Afghanistan or in the border zone. A group of academics is trying to get them evacuated, with help from the university\u2019s HR department and Executive Board.<\/p>\n

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Erasmus University has requested that five people and their close kin and the employees of an organisation be evacuated from Afghanistan. They are students, alumni and members of an organisation that has helped EUR-affiliated academics conduct research in the country for years and that also employs several former EUR students.<\/p>\n

Concerns<\/h2>

Marieke van Houte, an academic researcher affiliated with ESSB, is in touch with the persons concerned, through an intermediary situated outside Afghanistan for safety reasons. In association with a team of other academics who have conducted research in the country, lecturers, HR officers and communications officers, she is trying to get the persons involved to the Netherlands. \u201cThe people we\u2019re talking to are increasingly concerned. They are genuinely panicking,\u201d says Van Houte. \u201cI\u2019m afraid to promise them that things will be OK, because I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll get the ministry to ensure that these people are evacuated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Houte says that the request for evacuation has arrived in the embassy\u2019s inbox. \u201cBut by now they have received over 21,000 such emails. We haven\u2019t heard yet whether these people have actually been put on a list of persons to be evacuated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely vital that these people get some clear answers soon and that they are added to the evacuation list,\u201d emphasises EUR spokesperson Rateb Abawi. \u201cThe problem has not yet been solved, which is worrisome. These people are in a vulnerable position, partly because of the work they\u2019ve done for Erasmus University.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research in Afghanistan<\/h2>

Van Houte has been to Afghanistan several times herself, most recently in 2012. At the time she was conducting research on refugees who had returned to their home country, and on the differences between those who returned of their own accord and those who were forced to do so. In Afghanistan she was allowed to use Cordaid\u2019s office and infrastructure, and she also received help from the organisation, whose members she now hopes to have evacuated. The organisation helped her conduct her research.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Van Houte says, all the students, alumni and employees of the organisation were involved in studies on human rights or were active in international development programmes in Afghanistan. \u201cThose are not exactly subjects that are in line with the Taliban\u2019s ideology. So we are concerned about their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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