Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, said that so far, 300 General Directorate of Passports employees have been arrested or fired on charges of corruption.
Speaking to TOLOnews, Mujahid said that the Afghan government is committed to rooting out corruption and that the passport office has been cleared of any corruption.
“There were some forgeries produced. So far, 300 people from that department have been fired, arrested, and jailed due to corruption there,” Mujahid told TOLOnews.
However, some Kabul residents claim that even though the General Directorate of Passports is closed to the people, passports are given out to people in exchange for high fees.
“There are some people who sell passports for a lot of money on the black market. This has caused a lot of problems for the people,” said Ramin, a resident of Kabul.
“Some of our relatives have paid 1200 dollars, 1000 hundred dollars and 1500 dollars to get passports and leave the country,” said Hekmat Shah, another resident of Kabul.
Residents of Kabul said that receiving a passport is a fundamental right and that the Islamic Emirate should begin issuing them.
“It’s been six months since I registered at the passport office, I filed the online form, but unfortunately I haven’t received any calls or forms from the office,” said Ahmad Zahid, a resident of Kabul.
The spokesperson of the passport department said that the technical problem has not been resolved in this department so far, so the issuance of passports has been stopped.
“All technical groups are working to find solutions to the existing problems so that we can then begin the passport distribution process. Passport distribution generally is halted at all,” said Noorullah Patman, the spokesperson of the passport Directorate, told TOLOnews.
The passport directorate has been closed to the public for about five months, and there have been no updates on the ongoing technical issue; however, this Directorate issues passports to patients after receiving approval from the medical commission.
