The Afghan Taliban authorities said on Saturday that they will resume issuing passports in Kabul, bringing hope to citizens living under Islamist rule who feel threatened.
Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape the growing economic and humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an “avalanche of hunger.”
Alam Gul Haqqani, head of the passport department of the Ministry of the Interior, told reporters that the authorities will start issuing the documents at the passport office in Kabul starting on Sunday.
The Taliban stopped issuing passports shortly after regaining power on August 15 as thousands of people rushed to the only airport in Kabul to catch any international flight that could evacuate them.
In October, the passport office in Kabul reopened, but suspended work after a few days because of a large number of applications that caused the biometric equipment used there to malfunction.
“Now all the technical issues have been resolved,” Haqqani said, adding that initially the travel documents will be issued to those who had applied before the suspension of work in the office.
He said that new applications will be accepted from January 10.
Without a valid passport, many Afghans who want to travel to neighboring Pakistan for treatment have been locked down for several months.
“My mother has some health problems. We needed to go to Pakistan a long time ago, but we can’t because the passport department has been closed,” said Jamsheed, who, like many Afghans, has only one name.
“We are very happy now… we can get our passports and go to Pakistan.”
The issuance of passports is also seen as a test of the Taliban’s commitment to the international community to allow eligible people to leave during the increasingly serious humanitarian crisis.
The Taliban are urging donors to resume billions of dollars in aid that was suspended due to the collapse of the former Western-backed regime in the final stages of the U.S. withdrawal.
According to the United Nations Development Program, for an economy that has been hit by drought and decades of war, the sudden cessation of aid amounts to an “unprecedented” financial shock.
The crisis forced many people in the capital to sell family property to buy food for their families.
After Kabul Airport was destroyed in August due to a large number of people scrambling to evacuate, international flights mainly to Dubai and Abu Dhabi have slowly resumed at Kabul Airport.
Complete News Source : The New Indian Express
