US Urges Taliban to Allow Free Passage of Afghans

Washington — 

Amid concerns over new Taliban travel restrictions and a halt in evacuation flights from Afghanistan, U.S. officials are urging the group to honor their commitment to provide safe passage for Afghans seeking to leave the country.

Following their takeover of Afghanistan in August, the Taliban pledged to let all people with proper travel documentation leave, acquiescing to international demands for their unrestricted departure.

A State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that officials had raised concerns over the restrictions with the Taliban.

“Our ability to facilitate relocation for our Afghan allies also depends on the Taliban living up to its commitment of free passage,” the spokesperson said in response to a query from VOA. “We have reiterated this point to them.”

Writing on Twitter, Ian McCary, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan, said Wednesday that “all people with valid travel documents should be able to depart the country.”

The comments came after top Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference over the weekend that authorities in Afghanistan would stop Afghans from trying to leave the country without an “excuse.”

“I have to say clearly that persons who leave the country along with their families have no excuse … we are preventing them,” Mujahid said.

Hugo Shorter, the British chargé d’affaires, called on the Taliban to clarify the remarks. “Such actions undermine both commitments to the international community and the trust of Afghans,” he tweeted.

Amid the uproar, Mujahid on Tuesday appeared to walk back his comment.

“My remarks about Afghans going abroad was only Afghans who do not have legal documents and are going abroad illegally will be prevented,” he tweeted. “Our compatriots who have legal documents and invitations can travel outside the country and can return to the country.”

Asked by VOA about a separate reported Taliban directive to officials at Afghan ports of entry to stop anyone who has worked with U.S. and NATO forces, Mujahid said, “This report may not be correct.”

The directive was obtained and published by the Afghan news site 8am.af.

Despite Mujahid’s reassurances, the Taliban’s policy on travel remains unclear, leaving in limbo tens of thousands of Afghans who are seeking to evacuate. According to Matt Zeller, a U.S. Army veteran and co-founder of the nonprofit No One Left Behind, more than 250,000 Afghan allies eligible for special immigrant visas and U.S. refugee status remain in Afghanistan.

Since August, when the U.S. military led the evacuation of more than 124,000 people following the Taliban takeover of the capital, Kabul, the State Department and private organizations have chartered aircraft to airlift some of those left behind.

About 10,000 Afghans have gotten out over the past six months, according to Alex Plitsas, chief operating officer and spokesperson for Human First Coalition, a humanitarian organization. He estimates that private groups have spent roughly $100 million on the evacuation process.

But an apparent row between the Taliban and Qatari officials has brought the evacuation flights to a halt in recent weeks, according to several people familiar with the process.

The last State Department-chartered flight from Kabul to Doha was on January 26, and “then it shut down again,” a U.S. government official familiar with the situation said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The [State Department] pipeline is paralyzed, but that seems to have more to do with whatever is going on between the Taliban and Qatar,” the official said. “They are looking for other options in the region.”

The State Department spokesperson did not respond to a question about the date of the last official evacuation.

The spokesperson, however, said the department continues “to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and Afghan allies and their eligible family members who wish to leave Afghanistan.”

“As we’ve said before, we will be relentless in this effort as we stand by our Afghan allies and their families,” the spokesperson said.

VOA State Department bureau chief Nike Ching and VOA Afghan Service’s Najiba Khalil contributed to this article.

Taliban Warns It Will “Reconsider” Policy Towards US If It Does Not Receive Frozen Assets

Afghanistan’s hardline Islamic rulers say they plan to “reconsider” their policy towards the United States if the administration of President Joe Biden refuses to return the full $7 billion in assets that have been frozen in the United States.

President Biden issued an executive order last Friday calling on banks to set aside $3.5 billion of the frozen assets in a trust fund slated for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The remaining $3.5 billion would stay in the United States to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism, specifically the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City, that are still working their way through the courts.

A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement Monday saying the September 11 attacks “had nothing to do with Afghanistan.” The spokesman said if the United States “does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country,” referring to Afghanistan’s official name.

FILE – Taliban officials walk down a hotel lobby during talks in Doha, Qatar, Aug. 12, 2021. The Taliban and the United States ended two days of meetings in Qatar on Nov. 30, 2021.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan at the time of September 11 attacks, and harbored Osama bin Laden, the head of the al Qaida terrorist network and mastermind of the U.S. attacks. A U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the attacks overthrew the Taliban after they refused Washington’s demands to surrender bin Laden.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last August ended the nearly 20-year war, but the United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities.

More than half of the country’s poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under five years of age could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to U.N. estimates following the U.S. withdrawal from the country.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

Biden Calls on Taliban to Release American Hostage

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to release a U.S. civil engineer who was abducted two years ago and is believed to be the last American hostage held by the Taliban.

Mark Frerichs is a 59-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Lombard, Illinois, who worked in Afghanistan for a decade on development projects. He was kidnapped a month before the February 2020 U.S. troop pullout deal was signed and was transferred to the Haqqani network, a brutal Taliban faction accused of some of the deadliest attacks of the war.

Monday marks his second year in captivity.

“Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice,” Biden said in a statement.

“The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.”

Biden pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in August in a chaotic withdrawal that drew sharp criticism from Republicans and his own Democrats as well as foreign allies and punctured his approval ratings.

Frerichs’ family has criticized the U.S. government for not pressing harder to secure his release. Last week, his sister, Charlene Cakora, made a personal plea to Biden in a Washington Post opinion piece titled, “President Biden, please bring home my brother, the last American held hostage in Afghanistan.”

The United States has raised Frerich’s case in every meeting with the Taliban, the State Department said in a statement. “We call on the Taliban to release him. We will continue working to bring him home,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken added in a Twitter post.

U.S. and Taliban officials met for the first time since the pullout in October in Doha, Qatar, which had hosted talks on Afghanistan that led to the troop withdrawal.

The Qatari emir was due to visit the White House on Monday on a range of issues that will include global energy security, the White House said last week. Qatar represents U.S. interests in Kabul.

Afghan LGBT community faces 'serious' safety threats from Taliban: HRW | Main | Spanish edition

The Afghan LGBT+ community has faced an “increasingly desperate situation” with serious safety threats since the Taliban’s return to power, Human Rights Watch said in a joint report with OutRight Action International on Wednesday.

The 43-page report titled “Even If You Go to the Skies, We’ll Find You” is based on interviews with 60 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Afghans, residing in Afghanistan or in nearby countries and who have been Attacked by the Taliban or abused by family members or neighbors who support the fundamentalists.

“We spoke with LGBT Afghans who have survived gang rape, mob attacks, or have been hunted by their own family members who joined the Taliban, and they have no hope that state institutions will protect them,” J. Lester Feder, senior fellow for emergency research at OutRight Action International, said in a statement.

“It is difficult to overstate how devastating – and terrifying – the return of Taliban rule has been for LGBT Afghans.”

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