KABUL: Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Sunday announced that the regime will not allow any more evacuations of Afghans until the situation improves abroad for those who have already left.
“The government has the responsibility to protect the people so this will be stopped until we get the assurance that their lives will not be endangered,” Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference.
Zabihullah said the Taliban had received reports of thousands of Afghans “living in very bad conditions” in Qatar and Turkey.
More than 120,000 Afghans and dual nationals were evacuated up to August 31 when the last US-led troops withdrew, two weeks after the group seized Kabul.
Hundreds more were allowed to leave on flights after that, but the last official evacuation by air was on December 1. Occasional evacuations have taken place by road via Pakistan until recently, however.
The spokesperson was responding to a question about reports circulating on social media that border officials had been told not to allow anyone to be evacuated — including by road.
After seizing power the Taliban promised Afghans would be allowed to come and go as they pleased — as long as they had passports and visas for their destinations.
However, they also allowed thousands of people without travel documents to leave — mostly families with individuals who worked for US-led forces, embassies or other Western organisations over the last 20 years.
