Afghanistan: Taliban leaders appeal for help as migrant crisis looms
Senior Taliban officials appealed on Saturday to help internationally fight the increasingly deep economic crisis that has triggered fears of other refugees from Afghanistan.
Comments, at a special meeting to mark the United Nations International Migrant Day, underlined the urge of the new Islamic Taliban government to engage with the world community, four months after they seized power in Kabul.
Deputy Foreign Minister The movement, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, said responsibilities of countries such as the United States, which have blocked billions of central bank reserves, to help Afghanistan recover after decades of war.
“The impact of frozen funds is in ordinary people and not the Taliban authorities,” he told the conference, attended by representatives from international organizations for migration (IOM) and UNSCR, the UN refugee organization.
The UN agencies estimate that millions of Afghans can face hunger during the winter without urgent assistance, but assistance has been hampered by international reluctance to be directly involved with the Taliban, partly due to concern for the right to women and political inclusion.
Withdrawal of foreign aid who suddenly followed the Taliban victory had pushed the fragile Afghan economy almost collapsing. Millions of people without work and banking system are only partially functional.
“If the political and economic situation has not changed, there will be more migration,” Stanikzai said.
The United States has issued a guide that allows personal cash delivery to Afghanistan but has not ruled out its rejection to release $ 9 billion in central bank reserves or demand sanctions on a number of Taliban leaders.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with representatives from the Red Cross International Committee on Saturday in Islamabad, ahead of the Foreign Minister’s meeting of the Islamic Cooperation Organization to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
He said the Taliban welcomed the International Humanitarian Organization and gave a guarantee that they would be allowed to work without obstacles.
