Afghans given route out as Kabul passport office reopened

AFGHANISTAN’S Taliban authorities said they would resume issuing passports in Kabul, giving hope to citizens who feel threatened living under the Islamists’ 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 today 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 Aug 15 return to power, as tens of thousands of people scrambled to Kabul’s only airport in an attempt 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,” Mr Haqqani said, adding that initially travel documents will be given to those who had applied before work was suspended. New applications will be accepted next month, he said.

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

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 regime imploded in the final stages of a US military withdrawal.