Hundreds line up at passport office in Kabul

Taliban announces decision to re-issue passports to Afghans

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  Afghans gather outside the passport office in Kabul after Taliban officials said they would start issuing travel documents again following months of delays. Photo: Reuters

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  Afghans gather outside the passport office in Kabul. Photo: Reuters

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  Months of passport delays hampered attempts by those trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control. Photo: Reuters

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  Afghans outside Kabul's passport office after Taliban officials said they would start issuing documents again. Photo: Reuters

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  Months of passport delays hampered attempts by those trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control. Photo: Reuters

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  Afghans gather outside a passport office recently re-opened after the Taliban said they would deal with a backlog of applications approved by the previous administration in Kabul. Photo: AP

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  A member of the Taliban, left, talks to Afghans gathering outside a government passport office. Photo: AP

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  Afghans line up outside a government passport office recently re-opened after Taliban announced they would be issuing a backlog of applications approved by the previous administration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. (AP Photo / Felipe Dana)

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  A man holds an expired passport as Afghans gather outside a government office after the Taliban said they would start issuing passports again. Photo: Reuters

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  A Taliban fighter speaks to Afghans gathered outside the passport office in Kabul. Photo: Reuters

Hundreds of Afghans flocked to the passport office in Kabul on Wednesday, where Taliban security men had to beat back some in the crowd to maintain order.

Taliban officials have said the service will resume from Saturday, after being suspended since their takeover and the fall of the previous government in August.

The decision to halt that service led to many who were desperate to leave the country being stranded.

“I have come to get a passport but, as you can see here, there are lots of problems, the system is not working,” one applicant, Mahir Rasooli, told Reuters outside the office.

“There is no official to answer our questions here to tell us when to come. People are confused.”

A spokesman for Taliban officials running the passport department did not respond to requests for comment.

Poverty and hunger have become worse since the militant group took over Afghanistan, which was already suffering because of drought and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Billions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid has been frozen by much of the international community, and half a million people have been displaced in recent months, according to the United Nations, and that number will grow if health services, schools and the economy break down.

The hundreds who descended on the passport office came despite advice that distribution of passports would only begin on Saturday, and initially only for those who had already applied.

The crowd pressed against a large concrete barrier, trying to hand documents to an official in a scene reminiscent of the chaos at Kabul airport in the last stages of evacuation after the withdrawal of US troops.

The official urged them to return home and come back on Saturday.

“I am here to receive a passport, but unfortunately I couldn't,” said a man in the crowd, Ahmad Shakib Sidiqi. “I don't know what we should do in this condition.”

The bleak economic outlook drives the desire to leave, Mr Sidiqi and Mr Rasooli told Reuters.

“There is no job and the economic situation is not too good, so I want to have a good future for my kids,” Mr Rasooli said.

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  Young Afghan children run from the Pakistani border guards at the Torkham crossing as they attempt to enter Afghanistan by hiding in the undercarriages of lorries. All photos: Oliver Marsden for The National

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  A young Afghan girl waits for the right moment to stow herself away under a lorry as it crosses from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

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  Every day dozens of Afghan children, such as this young girl, smuggle themselves over the border into Pakistan to sell paan leaves and other goods before smuggling themselves back again.

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  A Pakistani border guard watches on as the driver of a lorry carrying goods from Afghanistan searches for children hiding underneath his vehicle.

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  A border guard from Pakistan catches a child hiding in the undercarriage of a lorry in his attempt to smuggle into Pakistan.

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  The lorry drivers are ordered down by the Pakistani border guards and made to unlock any small containers or boxes.

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  The children wait for the lorry to slow enough so that they can slip between the tyres and then disappear into the hidden depths of the vehicle.

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  A border guard from Pakistan searches for children hiding in the belly of a lorry that has just crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

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  Afghan children caught by Pakistani border guards in their attempt to cross over illegally are made to line up by the side of the road and wait.

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  A border guard from Pakistan marches children from Afghanistan back over the border.

After the Taliban’s swift capture of Kabul in August, the world has waited with bated breath to see if the hard-won gains made by women and girls over the past 20 years would be upheld.

Last week, the Taliban said classes would resume for boys in year seven and above, but they made no mention of girls going back to school, effectively locking a large portion of Afghanistan's children out of the classroom.

Mr Sidiqi said he wanted a passport to accompany a member of his family to neighbouring Pakistan to seek medical treatment and that they had no choice but to leave.

“We have to leave Afghanistan,” he said. “It is a bad situation in Afghanistan – no job, no work. It is not a good condition for us to live.”

The Taliban have said they welcome international aid, although many donors froze their assistance after the group took power.