Tens of thousands in Afghanistan are trapped as neighbors close borders

The United States estimates that most Afghan and other interpreters who had applied for visas to flee the country were left behind after the August international evacuation effort transported more than 120,000 people from Kabul, he said. a senior State Department official.

On Thursday in Kabul, the Taliban began preparing for the official inauguration of their government which is expected in the coming days. Thousands of white flags of the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban are being manufactured, according to images posted on social media. In the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the only part of the country that was not under Taliban control, fighting between the Taliban and resistance militias continued.

In the earlier stages of the more than four decades of wars in Afghanistan, since the Soviet invasion of 1979, Pakistan hosted millions of refugees, many of whom never left. Now, he is not willing to accept any more. The other major sanctuary, Iran, does not allow them to enter either, nor do the Central Asian states.

More than half a million Afghans were displaced from their homes this year in the fight between the Taliban and the former Afghan government, according to the United Nations. The Taliban completed their military takeover by entering Kabul on August 15, following a rapid conquest of the rest of the country.

The UN has called this week for neighboring states to open their borders and for countries outside the region to provide more resettlement sites for Afghans. This is a tough sell-off, especially in Europe, where anti-immigrant sentiment has become a major political issue following the 2015 influx of Syrian refugees.

European interior ministers meeting this week said they did not want to see large-scale illegal migration and would strengthen support for Afghanistan’s neighbors “to ensure that those in need receive adequate protection mainly in the region. “. However, the European Union and some member states said they were open to hosting some Afghans at risk as part of an international resettlement program.

The U.S. State Department said those wishing to apply for refugee status should leave Afghanistan first, adding: “We recognize that it may be difficult for Afghans to obtain a visa to a third country. or find a way to enter the country. ” “Special immigrant visas” for performers and others who worked closely with the United States are a separate program, and their application processes are still being worked out after the embassy closes in Kabul.

The UK has said it would offer asylum to up to 20,000 Afghans in the next five years, in addition to those who moved last month.

“I have had my legal life in Kabul for the last twenty years. Then I was forced to cross the border illegally, “said a man who worked for contractors in the U.S. government, the UN and directly for the Afghan government, making it a likely target. for the Taliban. “I don’t know what will come next for me.”

The man, who belongs to the Hazara ethnic and religious minority who was persecuted during the last Taliban period in power in the 1990s, hid in Kabul for a week after the group entered the capital. Finding the chaos at Kabul airport too dangerous and not getting a response from Western embassies, including U.S. and Canadian missions, he took a bus south to Kandahar with his wife and three children. , where he found a smuggler of people who brought the family in. Pakistan.

The Taliban say they will allow Afghans with valid passports and visas to travel abroad. To date, the country’s passport offices remain closed. The embassies of all Western nations and India have closed and their diplomats have left the country.

The country’s economic collapse after the Taliban took control, with food, fuel and cash, could soon push an even larger number of Afghans to try to flee, aid workers say.

“When the airlift and the media frenzy are over, the vast majority of Afghans, some 39 million, will remain in Afghanistan. They need us,” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said this week. “They must be able to exercise their right to seek international protection and borders must be kept open for that.”

UNHCR says there has been no significant increase in figures crossing Pakistani or Iranian borders from Afghanistan in the past two weeks. He warns that Iran and Pakistan, together where almost 90% of previously registered Afghan refugees live, will fight financially to cope.

Pakistan is already hosting 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, although it believes the actual figure is around 3 million.

The country helped evacuate more than 9,000 Afghans and foreigners from more than 20 nations during the second half of August, mostly by air, but almost all simply transited. Pakistan says it is working to help achieve stability in Afghanistan so that a refugee exodus can be prevented.

“We are the country with the largest number of Afghan refugees right now. It is very clear that we would not like to have more, “said Asim Ahmad, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The nearest crossing point to Pakistan from the Afghan capital, which runs east to Torkham, is closed to Afghans, except in exceptional cases such as medical emergencies. The other main crossing point, south of Kabul to Chaman, is open, but only to those who have documents to prove they live near the border and can therefore benefit from special long-term arrangements. date for border areas.

Locals estimate that several thousand Afghans have been smuggled in through Shaman in recent weeks, paying up to $ 90 per person. Afghans also pay hundreds of dollars for taxi rides in Afghanistan to get to the border crossing and from the border to the nearest major Pakistani city, Quetta, with fares up to ten times normal.

The Afghans who made the trip said entering Pakistan by Chaman was an easier option than going to other countries. However, some queued for two days at the border amid a large number of people and were still diverted, even after paying the traffickers.

Pakistan says no new refugees have arrived in recent weeks. UNHCR says some Afghans have applied for asylum in Pakistan, but have been unable to provide numbers. Those who are not officially from Pakistan say they want to help the United States and other nations move forward.

Entering Iran is an even tougher option, despite Tehran’s announcement that it would establish camps on its side of the border. According to the UNHCR, only those who can obtain visas or other travel documents can be transmitted.

A 23-year-old engineering student at Kabul University said he and his friends were paying a smuggler $ 200 each to move to Iran from Afghanistan’s Nimroz province. They were taken to the border, where hundreds of people were crossing. They crossed paths with the Iranian guards firing into the air and demanding that they stop, but they went ahead, reuniting with the smuggler on the other side. For the next 24 hours, they had no food or drink. It took them six days to reach Tehran, where they must be on the lookout for authorities looking for illegal arrivals.

“I was a good student with good dreams at Kabul University. Now, I am an Afghan worker in Tehran and I cannot go out, I cannot study, I cannot be considered a real human being, ”he said. “I’m heartbroken.”

—Jalaludin Nazari, Jason Douglas, Laurence Norman and Zamir Saar contributed to this article.

Write to Saeed Shah to [email protected]