KABUL, 02 December 2021, (TON): The head of the passport department, Alem Gul Haqqani, said “the department submitted at least 20,000 passports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to distribute outside the country for Afghan citizens.”

According to the department, the passports will be issued to the Afghans outside the country whose passports have expired.

Alem Gul Haqqani said “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.”

The extension of passport validity is always a fundamental problem for people living abroad, but Kabul residents, meanwhile, criticized the passport department for not addressing their needs.

Zahra Mohammadi, a civil society activist said “people inside Afghanistan are in serious need of passports, they need to leave for education, people must take their relatives out for medical treatment–these people need passports more than other migrants outside.”

Passport distribution in Kabul was suspended about two weeks ago, even though offices are open in 17 other provinces.