read more“I have come to get a passport but, as you can see here, there are lots of problems, the system is not working,” one applicant, Mahir Rasooli, told Reuters outside the office. People are confused.”A spokesman for the Taliban officials running the passport department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Poverty and hunger have worsened since the Islamist movement took over Afghanistan, which already suffered from drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. read moreThe hundreds who descended on the passport office came despite advice that distribution of passports would only begin on Saturday, and initially only for those who had already applied. “I am here to receive a passport, but unfortunately I couldn’t,” said a man in the crowd, Ahmad Shakib Sidiqi.
