Re-issuing Passports After Months Of Delay, Afghanistan Hires Female Special Immigration Officers

Illustration of Afghans flying abroad during a massive evacuation last August. (Twitter/@DeptofDefense)

JAKARTA - Afghan authorities returned to issue passports to their citizens again on Tuesday, a senior official said, following months of delays that have left those trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized power.

The process, which had slowed even before the Taliban returned to power following the withdrawal of US troops, would provide applicants with documents physically identical to those issued by the previous administration, the official said.

Alam Gul Haqqani, acting head of the passport office, said between 5,000 and 6,000 passports would be issued daily, with women employed to process those meant for female citizens.

"No male employee is entitled to perform biometric (check) or other passport work on a woman," he told reporters in Kabul, the capital, citing Reuters Oct. 5.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs Qari Sayeed Khosti on the same occasion said, around 25,000 applicants have reached the final stages of passport payments, with around 100,000 applications in the early stages of the process pending.

Afghans welcome and are relieved by the re-issue of passports by the government. Allows them to have valid travel documents for overseas.

Outside the passport office in Kabul, a resident, Najia Aman, said he was relieved that it had been reopened, so that one of his family members could obtain documents for treatment abroad.

"I am very happy that the passport office has reopened. We faced a lot of problems and we couldn't get passports to go to Pakistan for treatment," he said simply.