Rush for visas as Taliban offer way out

The Taliban has announced that 25,000 passports were ready to be issued.

Many people were turned away and officials had to beat back the crowds that converged on the passport office in Kabul on Wednesday. Picture: Reuters

Hundreds of Afghans gathered outside the passport office in Kabul on Wednesday after the Taliban announced that tens of thousands of people would be allowed to leave the country.

People gathered from the early morning, waving paperwork at guards, and crowds surged towards a concrete barrier outside the passport office. The Taliban had announced that 25,000 passports were ready to be issued.

There were reports that Taliban officials beat back some people in the crowd as they tried to maintain order. The scenes recalled the chaos outside Kabul’s airport after the withdrawal of western forces from the country.

Many Afghans had arrived at the office having not been allowed to leave at border crossings with Iran and Pakistan since the Taliban swept to power in August. Fear of the militant group, combined with crushing poverty, has forced many to consider leaving.

Interior Ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosti said that 100,000 passport applications were being processed and between 5000 and 6000 were expected to be issued each day this week. Among those that were able to leave the country on Wednesday was the Afghan cricket team. Qatari Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwah al-Khater said a “request to help facilitate their travel came from the interim government in Afghanistan”.

Naser Jaafari, 25, arrived at the passport office at 8am and was still there early in the afternoon. He left his home in Mazar-i-Sharif, about 426km north of Kabul, when the Taliban took control of the country. Since then, he said, he has been waiting for an opportunity to get out of the country.

“They told me I have to go back to Mazar-i-Sharif,” he said. “They refused to process my family’s applications. I’ve come to apply for passports for me and my family because we want to travel to Pakistan or Iran. We attempted to enter Pakistan via the Spin Boldak border crossing a week ago but they were only letting Pashtuns through.”

Many others like Mr Jaafari were trying to leave because of Afghanistan’s worsening economic outlook. European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned at the weekend that “Afghanistan is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming, which would be dangerous for Afghans, the region and international security”.

Food prices have increased and supplies have become increasingly scarce after billions of Afghanistan’s assets held in overseas central bank reserves were frozen with the return of the Taliban. “We don’t trust the Taliban,” Jaafari said. “Things may be OK at the moment but we don’t believe it will last.”

Another growing concern is power. Afghanistan’s state power company appealed to the UN on Wednesday night for $US90m to settle unpaid bills to central Asian suppliers.

In the crowds, Samira, 24, said: “All my family except for my sister left the country two years ago. I stayed because I was studying political science and had dreams of working in the government. All that is gone. I wish I had left when my relatives did. I’ll go anywhere else – anywhere there is no Taliban.”

Tayeb, 23, said that he had secured a scholarship to study law in Saudi Arabia but has to wait until he has been given a passport to travel. He was among the many who were told to come back and try again.

A Taliban official said that the passport office would be fully operational from Saturday and those needing to leave the country for medical purposes were being prioritised.

Officials said that the documents would be physically identical to those issued by the previous government. Local media had reported citizens expressing concerns over the prospect of passports being printed with the title of the Islamic Emirate, believing they would not be accepted around the world until the Taliban were recognised as a legitimate government.

The Times