The Taliban will no longer allow evacuations of Afghans wishing to leave their country until the situation of those already evacuated abroad improves, their spokesman announced on Sunday.
More than 120,000 Afghans and bi-nationals were evacuated until August 31 and the hasty departure from Afghanistan of the last American soldiers, two weeks after the capture of Kabul by the Islamist fundamentalists.
Hundreds more were later allowed to leave the country by air, but the last official evacuation by air took place on December 1.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban had received reports of thousands of Afghans “living in very poor conditions” in Qatar and Turkey.
“The government has a responsibility to protect people, so (evacuations of Afghans) will be stopped until we are sure that their lives are not in danger” in the countries where they are being evacuated, said he said at a press conference.
He was responding to a question about reports circulating on social media that Taliban border authorities had been instructed not to allow anyone to be evacuated, either by air or by road.
After taking power, the Taliban promised that Afghans would be free to come and go as they pleased, provided they had valid passports and visas for their destinations.
“A valid excuse”
They have also allowed thousands of Afghans without travel documents to leave the country, mostly families of people who have worked for the US-led coalition, embassies or other international organizations over the past two decades. years.
Thousands of people who fall into the latter category are still in Afghanistan and want to leave the country at any cost, fearing being targeted by the Taliban as “collaborators”.
While widespread reprisals have so far not been reported, a UN report has claimed that more than 100 members of the former regime, particularly security forces, have been killed by the Taliban. since August.
According to the Taliban spokesman, the new government never promised that the evacuations could go on indefinitely.
“Initially, we said that the Americans… could take people they had concerns about,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.
“But it wasn’t a promise that was meant to last,” he said.
Families wishing to leave Afghanistan in the future will need to have a valid “excuse” to do so, according to the spokesperson.
Women with chaperon
He also said women would not be allowed to travel overseas unless accompanied by a male chaperone.
“It is the order of Sharia”, he justified, adding that the authorities were examining the means so that this does not affect the women who would benefit from scholarships abroad and who will have to travel. .
Women wishing to travel long distances in the country already have the obligation to be accompanied by a man from their immediate family.
After taking power, the fundamentalists promised a softer version of the harsh interpretation of Islamic law that characterized their previous rule from 1996 to 2001, when they largely trampled on human rights.
If the new regime – which no country has recognized until then – took care not to enact too severe rules at the national level, the provincial authorities took over to put in place restrictions, in particular concerning women.
Thousands of people still try daily to reach neighboring Iran, in search of work or with the aim of reaching Europe to find asylum.
The country is in the midst of a humanitarian emergency following the collapse of the economy, caused by the freezing of billions of assets held abroad and the sudden cessation of international aid which was bringing the country to the end of its rope. arms for 20 years, and which is now coming back in dribs and drabs.
According to the UN, more than half of the 38 million Afghans are threatened by food insecurity.