Afghan missions vow to provide consular services despite Taliban disavowal

Afghan missions:- Afghan diplomats and diplomatic missions in Europe, Australia and Canada say they will continue providing consular services despite the Taliban's recent announcement disavowing them.

The Taliban's Foreign Ministry announced in a statement Tuesday that it would not recognize the legitimacy of consular services performed at Afghan diplomatic missions in Australia, Canada and 11 European countries.

"[T]he consular services such as deeds, endorsements, NOCs, issuing passports, passport renewal stickers, visa stickers, etc., from the missions in London, Belgium, Berlin, Bonn ... Austria, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia are no longer accepted by MoFA and relevant departments, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bears no responsibility toward these documents and no actions will be taken thereof," read the statement.

Afghan diplomats working in the 13 missions disavowed by the Taliban are the employees of the former Afghan government, which collapsed after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. They have remained at their posts in the years since, helping Afghan citizens with a range of consular services.

Representatives of the missions said they would continue their services without interruption.

"The diplomatic and consular missions of Afghanistan in Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere remain committed to continue providing consular services within the framework of national and international laws and regulations, and in understanding and collaboration with host country authorities," said a statement issued on Tuesday by the Coordination Council of Ambassadors and General Consulates of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

"I am confident that the consular services [in these countries] would continue as usual," said Nigara Mirdad, Afghanistan's deputy ambassador in Poland.

She added that the consular services are permitted by the host countries and provided in accordance with international conventions and laws.

In the council's statement, the Taliban said they "repeatedly urged" the missions in these countries to “engage” with the Taliban's Kabul-based rulers, but "unfortunately, the actions of most of the missions are carried out without coordination, arbitrary and in explicit violation of the existing accepted principles."

Mirdad called the Taliban's decision "unreasonable" and said that consular services are "transparent and based on Afghan laws."

She added that the diplomats working in the missions do not recognize the Taliban's government as it does not have "any internal and international legitimacy."

"Instead, the Taliban should work on its government's internal legitimacy and respect human rights and Afghanistan's commitments to the international conventions and laws," Mirdad said.

The Taliban's government is not yet recognized by any country, although China has accepted the credentials of the Taliban's ambassador to Beijing.

The international community says that to gain recognition, the Taliban must honor their commitment to respect women's rights and form an inclusive government in Afghanistan.

While the Taliban lack formal international recognition, some countries have handed over their local Afghan diplomatic missions to the Taliban.

In March 2023, the Taliban said they sent diplomats to at least 14 countries.

Last week, the spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said in a news conference that "visas to people in Afghanistan are being given and that to and fro movement is happening."

In November, the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi closed as the diplomats appointed by the former government were not given visas.

Afghan diplomats in Spain and the Netherlands announced in October that they established contact with the Taliban's Foreign Ministry.

Diplomatic missions in these two countries are not included in the list of missions that the Taliban announced cutting ties with.

Shah Sultan Akifi, former cultural attache of Afghanistan in Moscow, told VOA that the Taliban's decision would not affect the operations of the 14 diplomatic missions listed in the announcement, but it would "create problems" for ordinary Afghans living in the host countries.

"It will be problematic for Afghans who want to travel to Afghanistan or those who want to attest their documents if the Taliban don't accept the consular services in these countries," Akifi said. VOA/SP