How Taliban officials have turned the world’s weakest passports into the most expensive

The Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 resulted in a chaotic and deadly exodus of hundreds of thousands from Afghanistan. Within hours of the group’s arrival in Kabul, tens of thousands scrambled for a way out. Thousands, including senior politicians and government officials, rushed to Kabul’s airport, in a desperate bid to be airlifted out of the country by the departing western countries. The images of desperate Afghans clinging onto moving planes, and at least two falling off midair, shocked the world. And a suicide attack outside the airport killed at least 183, including 13 US military personnel. And when the last US plane left Afghanistan, over 120,000 Afghans had been lucky enough to be airlifted to a third country. 

Afghanistan’s land borders, especially with Iran and Pakistan, became clogged with hundreds of thousands of Afghans. And according to an estimate, by the end of 2022, over a million Afghans had left the country.