Afghanistan to resume passport services in 17 provinces after two weeks halt; Reports

After at least two weeks' hold in the distribution, the Passport Department has resumed services in 17 provinces in Afghanistan and is expected to begin in the rest of the provinces soon, ANI reported, citing local media reports. Bringing a sigh of relief to lakhs of Afghans willing to leave the country and those living with expired passports abroad, on Saturday, Head of the Passport Department, Alam Gul Haqqani announced, "we have started our activities in 17 provinces and will soon start them in the rest of the provinces", TOLO News reported.

The announcement comes after the Taliban-led interim cabinet opened passport services in 7 provinces on November 16 - Balkh, Paktia, Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Nangarhar, and Khost -however, the operations remained stalled after officials informed that most of the biometric data of the Interior Ministry were destroyed by foreign forces, ANI reported, citing TOLO News on Nov 29. As per the latest updates, passport services will now also be available in Parwan, Kapisa, Logar, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Daikundi, Faryab, Ghor, Nuristan, and Badakhshan provinces.

However, as the department is planning to extend its services to provincial branches, Haqqani informed that there are some technical problems in the passport office in Kabul that remain unsolved. Assuring that efforts are underway to resolve the stalled progress, Haqqani said, "We purchased new machines. Some of them arrived and some will arrive. Whenever the machines are provided, we will resume passport issuing in the capital."

One million passports are in the process of printing

It is pertinent to mention that the passport services in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan resumed only in the capital city on October 5, at least a month-long hiatus after the Taliban takeover.

As per information from Saeed Khosti, head of media department in the Interior Ministry, for the time being, new passports will be issued with their previous title: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, TOLO News had reported on October 5. Around 1,70,000 applicants had already filed for passports in nearly two months under the Taliban regime.

As per a Khaama news report, on November 14, ministers of Interior Affairs informed that government would priortise the passport for those who have already filed online forms for the permits. "The passports will be issued based on the e-ID or the previous IDs that are verified officially", Haqqani was quoted by The Khaama Press. "There are 9,00,000 passports in the directorate, 6,00,000 passports with the company responsible for their printing. One million passports are in the process of printing, and one and a half million more are going to be printed", Haqqani added. According to Khaama Press, the all-men government has issued one hundred thousand passports and made 500 million Afghanis from it since they took over the country's administration.

Taliban govt. to issue passports for Afghan citizens abroad

On November 30, the Passport Department directorate, Haqqani, confirmed that the department had submitted at least 20,000 passports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to distribute to Afghans living abroad whose passports have expired, TOLO news reported. “We will attempt to send passports to migrants living abroad. We have sent about 20,000 passports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5,000 0f these will be sent to Saudi Arabia soon”, Gul Haqqani had said. 

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