Abdul Karim Hasib, Taliban’s head of the passport department, said Saturday that his office is issuing up to 100,000 passports to citizens each month after the group’s announcement to resume the distribution of passports in March.
Hasib reported this in a meeting with Abdul Salam Hanafi, Taliban’s deputy prime minister, and added that his office has put new measures in place to escalate the passport distribution process in the coming months.
Taliban’s deputy said in a statement posted on Twitter that a passport is the “fundamental right” of every citizen and the passport department should do whatever it can to ensure convenience for citizens.
Passports are currently printed outside the country carrying the logo and details of the previous government despite the group’s change of the country’s flag, emblem, and official logos.
The issuance of passports had been suspended several times since the Taliban retook power in August 2021 as tens of thousands of desperate citizens tried to flee the country fearing the group’s repressive rule and amid enduring hunger and poverty.
According to Henley Passport Index in 2023, Afghanistan’s passport is ranked the least powerful travel document in the world, facilitating entry to no country without a visa.
