From Reuters:
“Kabul passport office
suspends work as demand crashes system”
The Kabul passport office has
been forced to suspend operations after equipment used for issuing biometric
documents broke down under the pressure of processing thousands of applications
a day, the head of the office said. Worries about the future of Afghanistan
under the new Taliban government and a gathering economic and humanitarian
crisis that threatens millions with joblessness and hunger have fuelled an
exodus, with thousands crossing the border every day. Alam Gul Haqqani,
director of the passport department, said as many as 15,000-20,000 people a day
were camped outside the office in Kabul, five or six times more than the office
was able to handle, with many sleeping on the pavement overnight. Many were
forced to come back day after day after failing to file their application and
the biometric machines regularly broke down as they processed the documents,
causing further delays, he said. "To stop people suffering this and to
avoid disturbance, we have decided to stop the activities of the passport
department activities for a few days," he told Tolo News television on
Monday night, adding that the office would re-open soon. On Tuesday, the
interior ministry said 60 people, including a number of members of the passport
department, had been arrested for using forged or fake documents to obtain a
passport. There have also been growing complaints of people being forced to pay
bribes to officials to get their applications approved. International flights
have slowly begun operating again with regular services from Kabul to Dubai and
Islamabad offered by state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines and privately owned Kam
Air, in addition to charter services from other carriers.
^ You know you are governing the
right way when 15,000-20,000 people a day are willing to sleep outside to get a
Passport so they can leave your country. Maybe it’s time the Taliban have a good
think and decide to willingly give up power and go back to living in their
caves. It’s nearly 3 months since they took over and they haven’t done 1 good
thing for Afghanistan or the Afghan people. This is one of those times where it’s
ok to be a quitter. ^
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