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1000’s of Afghans throughout the UK and Eire face shedding an important layer of help because the nation’s embassy in London shuts down – with employees having been informed to use for political asylum or put together to go away Britain, The Unbiased understands.
The mission is closing on the finish of the month “on the official request” of the British authorities after the Taliban authorities dismissed the embassy’s employees for refusing to characterize it.
An eight months pregnant Afghan refugee in Dublin fears for her little one’s future with the embassy closing. “My little one is coming right into a world the place the mom’s paperwork are not legitimate and my toddler’s nationality is in jeopardy now,” the girl, who requested to not be named, informed The Unbiased.
“My passport has already expired and I cannot be allowed to resume it. I can’t return to Afghanistan, the place they’re disapproving of any working lady,” she stated.
The embassy is staffed by representatives of Afghanistan’s earlier regime, which was backed by the west earlier than the Taliban regained energy in 2021.
She had been invited to work at conferences in Spain, the girl claimed, however couldn’t journey with no passport.
“I can’t return house till the Taliban is there and now I’m not allowed to go away Eire,” she stated, including that her household was scattered in Afghanistan and different international locations.
The Taliban’s international ministry stated in July it might not recognise papers issued by Afghan embassies within the UK and several other different European international locations resulting from a scarcity of “coordination”.
The UK, just like the US and 13 different principally European international locations, doesn’t recognise the Taliban and is thus unlikely to permit them to reopen the embassy anytime quickly.
This implies Afghans, together with refugees, looking for to resume passports, get consular paperwork carried out or get hold of journey paperwork, will probably be required to contact Kabul after 27 September.
The UK authorities evacuated some 25,000 Afghans in August 2021 earlier than Nato forces left Afghanistan. Most, if not all, of them reportedly require paperwork of 1 kind or one other.
“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in London is scheduled to formally shut and can stop its operations on 27 September 2024 on the official request of the host nation,” Zalmai Rassoul, who represented the earlier regime as ambassador to the UK and Eire, stated.
Mr Rassoul and his employees are stated to have been informed to use for political asylum or put together to go away the UK in 90 days, sources informed The Unbiased.
This isn’t the primary time that the Afghan embassy in London has closed its doorways. It was beforehand shut down after the 1978 communist coup in Kabul due to its “anti-west bias and intimate relations with the previous Soviet Union”, in accordance with the embassy’s web site. The mission was then closed once more from 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban first dominated Afghanistan.
Within the three years since they returned to energy after overthrowing the Nato-backed regime in Kabul, the Taliban have fostered diplomatic relations with a number of main international locations together with China, Russia and Pakistan.
