Pakistan Visa Remains A Distant Dream for Afghans Under Taliban Regime

Haji Zaid, the spokesman for the Taliban governor in Kandahar, on Friday, quoted Amina Mohammed, the Deputy UN Secretary-General as saying that the UN "is fully committed to improving and strengthening the Taliban's relations with the international community”.

The Taliban also quoted Mohammed in their statement and wrote that the United Nations continues to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

However, the statements that the Taliban attributed to Mohammed have been in clear contradiction with the statement that the United Nations published at the end of the UN delegation's visit to Kabul.

The UN statement stressed that "this delegation directly issued a warning to the Taliban regarding the recent decree banning women from working in national and international non-governmental organisations”.

According to the UN statement, Mohammed said, "My message was clear. While we recognise the important exemptions made, these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services."

While in their statements from the UN delegation meetings, the Taliban has said that the UN delegation spoke about continuation of humanitarian aid without any conditions, the organisation’s statement quoted Mohammed as saying, “The effective delivery of humanitarian assistance is predicated on principles that require full, safe and unhindered access for all aid workers, including women.”

Kazakhstan said that these statistics show an increase in wheat exports to Afghanistan in comparison to the same time period last season.

After Taliban takeover of the power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry had announced that they are ready to become Afghanistan’s wheat supplier.

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations (UN) also had suggested that Kazakhstan should become a hub for storage and distribution of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Freedom House with the Afghan Canadian Civil Society Forum—formed the Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism and conducted a survey last year to learn how they are faring, determine their needs, and gauge the effects of Taliban rule.

As per the survey, answered by 663 people, only one-third managed to escape Afghanistan but are also frightened—for themselves as they cope with precarious living arrangements and for their families back home—and are often unable to resume their advocacy.

The two-thirds who remained in Afghanistan, stated the survey, reported a multitude of risks. “A staggering 46.8 percent specifically said that they faced intimidation and harassment, 24.1 percent said they encountered threats to life and physical safety, and 16.4 percent pointed to arbitrary arrest and torture,” the survey found.

Apart from violence, human rights defenders also reported defamation, searches of their homes, violence against family members, physical and psychological harm, kidnapping, and imprisonment in smaller numbers.

Of those who could manage to flee the country, 45.4 percent said that they experienced psychological harm, while 33.7 percent said that authorities in transit countries harassed them or threatened their deportation.

The report also emphasised that women had faced a unique set of challenges as they were particularly vulnerable to allegations of prostitution or immorality, punishable by whipping or death by stoning under the Taliban.

The report stressed that despite the threats to their lives, human rights defenders made sure to help humanitarian assistance, an issue which was less controversial for them.

The human rights defenders called for the return of a national mechanism to protect individual rights, like the joint commission established by the former elected government.

The report also urged that governments should not deport or intimidate in-transit Afghans who already live in fear. It sought for visas, access to formal labor, and dignity for such individuals.

It also called for settlement of such human rights defenders in more welcoming and safer nations.

The humanitarian assistance process in Afghanistan has been disrupted to the Taliban’s opposition to women's right to work.

Aid organisations have stressed that without the presence of Afghan female staff, they will be unable to distribute humanitarian aid across the country.

However, the Taliban officials have not yet allowed women to work for humanitarian organisations.

In December 2022, Save the Children Fund had announced that 135 children had died in Afghanistan.

The organisation had said that with the collapse of the health sector in the country, cases of pneumonia have increased in Afghanistan.

According to Save the Children Fund, the collapse of the healthcare system has taken a deadly toll on Afghan children.

With the winter season, there is an increasing risk of deaths of children due to various diseases.