Taliban stopped the issuance of new passports until the next announcement amidst the influx of applicants for the national document as thousands are opting for leaving the country.
The Taliban ministry of interior said it will repair the machinery for the publication of passport booklets and that the applicants are asked not to visit the passport department in Kabul.
The statement added that the passport department in Kabul issued at least 5,000 new passports a day.
People’s complaints
Fourteen months under Taliban rule, the passport department’s situation in Kabul has not improved, rather people’s complaints have been on the rise as they criticize the Taliban’s ability to address the high number of applicants.
Some of them said they have waited for months but have not been issued a passport despite processing the payment for the document.
“One of our family members was sick. We applied for a passport three months ago to take him for treatment in neighboring countries, but we could not get the passport,” said Husna Achakzai, a Kabul resident.
She claimed that they found a person who would take $2,000 to get a passport, but they did not have the ability to pay for this.
Another Kabul resident, Matiullah Habibi, said he is also waiting for getting a passport for the last three months.
“Whenever I went there, I was asked to visit another time… There is a lot of corruption in this department (in Kabul) and there is no one responsive,” said Habibi.
The passport department of the Taliban in Kabul did not respond to Amu reporter about its comment on the allegation by passport applicants.
This comes as thousands of Afghanis have applied for passports to leave the country as Afghanistan’s situation changed after the fall of the previous government.
