Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul .

[ghazi52]

Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul

AFP
18 Dec 2021

KABUL: Afghanistan's Taliban authorities said Saturday they will resume issuing passports in Kabul, giving hope to citizens who feel threatened living under the Talibans' rule.

Thousands of Afghans have applied for new travel documents to escape a growing economic and humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as an "avalanche of hunger".

Authorities will start issuing the documents from Sunday at Kabul's passport office, Alam Gul Haqqani, the head of the passport department in the interior ministry, told reporters.

The Taliban stopped issuing passports shortly after their August 15 return to power, as tens of thousands of people scrambled to Kabul's only airport in a bid to catch any international flight that could evacuate them.

In October authorities reopened the passport office in Kabul only to suspend work days later as a flood of applications caused the biometric equipment used there to break down.

"All the technical issues have now been resolved," Haqqani said, adding that initially travel documents will be given to those who had already applied before the office suspended work.

New applications will be accepted from January 10, he said.

Many Afghans who wanted to visit neighbouring Pakistan for medical treatment have been blocked for months in the absence of valid passports.

"My mother has some health issues and we needed to go to Pakistan a long time ago, but we could not because the passport department was closed," said Jamshid, who like many Afghans goes by only one name.

"We are happy now that... we can get our passports and go to Pakistan."

Issuing passports is also seen as a test of the Taliban's commitment to the international community to allow eligible people to leave amid the growing humanitarian crisis.

The Taliban are pressing donors to restore billions of dollars in aid that was suspended when the previous Western-backed regime imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.

The abrupt withholding of aid has amounted to an "unprecedented" fiscal shock for an economy already battered by drought and decades of war, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

The crisis has forced many in the capital to sell household possessions to buy food for their families.

International flights, mainly to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have slowly resumed at Kabul airport after the facility was trashed in August when crowds of people scrambled to evacuate.

 

[ghazi52]

Hundreds of people braved sub-zero temperatures in Afghanistan's capital to queue outside the passport office early Sunday, a day after the Taliban government announced it would resume issuing travel documents.

Many began their wait the previous night and most stood patiently in single file — some desperate to leave the country for medical treatment, others to escape the Taliban rule.

Tense Taliban personnel periodically charged crowds that formed at the front of the queue and at a nearby roadblock.

“We don't want any suicide attack or explosion to happen,” said Taliban security operative Ajmal Toofan, 22, expressing concerns about the dangers of crowding.

The local branch of the Islamic State group — the Taliban's principal enemy — killed more than 150 people in late August when citizens massed at Kabul airport in a desperate bid to leave during the early days of the new regime.

“Our responsibility here is to protect people,” Toofan added calmly, his gun pointed professionally towards the ground. “But the people are not cooperating.”

He spoke to AFP as one of his colleagues pushed a man who then fell headlong just short of a coil of barbed wire.

Mohammed Osman Akbari, 60, said he was urgently trying to reach Pakistan, because dilapidated hospitals at home were unable to complete his heart surgery.

Medics “put springs in my heart”, he said, referring to a stent. “They need to be removed and it's not possible here.”

Nearby, ambulances containing people too sick to queue were parked at the side of the road.

“The patient has a heart problem,” said ambulance driver Muslim Fakhri, 21, referring to a 43-year-old man lying on a stretcher inside his vehicle.

An applicant has to be present to ensure the passport is issued, he explained.

'No one cares'
The Taliban initially stopped issuing passports shortly after their return to power, which came as the previous, Western-backed regime imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.

In October, authorities reopened the passport office in Kabul only to suspend work days later as a flood of applications caused the biometric equipment to break down.

But the office said Saturday that the issue has been resolved and those whose applications were already in process can now get their documents.

Mursal Rasooli, 26, said she was happy to hear the news.

“The situation here is not peaceful,” she told AFP, hugging her two-year-old daughter Bibi Hawa close for dual relief against the biting cold.

“If the situation gets worse than this, then we have the passport” and can flee, she said.

Her husband is in Iran because he could not find work here, she added, before expressing concern about skyrocketing prices and a lack of jobs and education for women and girls.

Issuing passports — and allowing people to leave amid a humanitarian crisis the UN has called an “avalanche of hunger” — is seen as a test of the Taliban's commitment to the international community.

The Taliban are, meanwhile, pressing donors to restore billions of dollars in aid that was suspended when they came to power.

Local musician Omid Naseer, sporting a leather jacket, short beard and unkempt hair, was desperate to leave.

For “months now, since the Taliban came (to power), we've had no work”, he said.

“The artists are most vulnerable, but no one cares. “