Officials from Afghanistan’s Passport Directorate said the authority will begin issuing passports in the provinces of Balkh, Paktia, Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Nangarhar, and Khost on Sunday, according to local media. The decision was made by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in order to make the passport application process easier for applicants, as per Khaama Press, citing Alam Gul Haqqani, chief of the Passport Directorate. 

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Haqqani stated that those who have already filled out online forms for passports will be given priority, and that passports will be issued based on the e-ID or previous IDs that have been officially verified.

There are 9,00,000 passports in the directorate and 6,00,000 passports with the printing company, said Haqqani, who also stated that one million passports are currently being printed and one and a half million more will be printed. 

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According to Khaama Press, since the Taliban took control of the country, they have issued 100,000 passports and created 500 million Afghanis from it.

The head of the interior ministry’s media department, Saeed Khosti, confirmed the decision to issue them during a press conference in October, saying the new passports would include the previous title – the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Notably, ID and passport services were suspended shortly after the extremist group seized Kabul, the country’s capital. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghan nationals who want to flee the country or need to travel to other countries will be relieved by the news.

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Meanwhile, according to a TOLO news report, the head of the media department confirmed that the Ministry had given the green light to the female employees working in the passport department. The Ministry had asked the female employees to return to work, according to the report. Furthermore, the female employee would only assist women who were applying for passports and would not accept any requests from men.