Officials from the Taliban embassy in Tehran met with representatives from the consular affairs division of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss a phased rollout of passport distribution to Afghanistan nationals living in the neighboring country.
As reported by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, Fazl Mohammad Haqqani, the acting head of the Taliban embassy in Tehran, also raised the issue of legal challenges pertaining to newborn babies of families from Afghanistan in Iran.
A statement issued after the meeting and relayed by Tasnim outlined the initial stage of passport distribution, which entails providing documents to new-born infants. The distribution effort is also set to include students from Afghanistan who are studying in Iran.
The statement pointed out however that there is a hurdle with regards to instances with new-borns where there are no official birth certificates. However, Iranian officials have been approached to help resolve this issue.
The Afghanistan embassy in Tehran was handed over to the Taliban in late February.
Amidst these developments, Afghanistan refugees residing in Iran find themselves in a challenging situation due to a scarcity of employment opportunities and reported challenges with the conduct of the Iranian police, particularly for individuals whose residency documents have expired.
