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01-03-2022
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: KABUL: The Taliban have clamped down on Afghans leaving the country as, separately, their forces continue a massive security sweep, going house-to-house across the capital Monday in a “clearing operation”.
The new travel ban was announced late Sunday by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who packaged the restrictions as being aimed at preventing hardship for Afghans abroad.
Evacuations organized by nations or non-governmental organizations have been banned, while even families attempting to leave the country by their own means now need “an excuse”, or they will be stopped by immigration.
“I have to say clearly that persons who leave the country along with their families and have no excuse… we are preventing them,” Mujahid told a press conference late Sunday.
Women will also not be able to fly abroad unless accompanied by a male relative, mirroring similar domestic restrictions introduced last year which bar solo travel between cities and towns.
“If they (women) want to travel abroad, they should have a chaperone,” Mujahid said.
“This is the order of Islamic sharia law.”
The announcement came the same weekend a search for “kidnappers, thieves and looters” kicked off in Kabul and other Afghan cities, a so-called “clearing operation” separate from the travel measures.
The new travel restrictions will alarm tens of thousands of Afghans who have been promised asylum abroad after working with US-led foreign forces or other Western organizations during the Taliban´s 20-year insurgency.
More than 120,000 Afghans and dual nationals were evacuated up to August 31 when the last US-led troops withdrew, two weeks after the Taliban seized Kabul.
Thousands with similar links are still in Afghanistan, however, desperate to leave and fearful they may be targeted by the Taliban as “collaborators”.
Mujahid said the decision to ban departures came because the Taliban had received reports of thousands of Afghans “living in very bad conditions” abroad.
“The government has the responsibility to protect the people so this will be stopped until we get the assurance that their lives will not be endangered,” he said, adding that they had never promised for evacuations to continue indefinitely.
“Initially we had said that the Americans… could take people whom they had any concerns about… But this is not a continuous promise.”
Meanwhile, a massive security sweep of Kabul continued Monday with Taliban fighters going house-to-house in search of weapons and criminals blamed for a recent spate of robberies and kidnappings.
The “clearing operation” has alarmed many who fear being targeted because of their association with the previous Western-backed regime or US-led foreign forces.
Irate residents have posted videos on social media showing homes they said had been trashed during Taliban searches, but several people said their encounters had been polite and cursory.
Mujahid said authorities had discovered two kidnapped victims during the operation so far, and also freed two teenage girls who they found chained in a basement. He said light and heavy weapons, explosives, radio equipment and drones had been seized, as well as vehicles belonging to the military or government.
Six people suspected of being members of the Islamic State group had been detained, he said, along with nine kidnappers and 53 “professional thieves”.
Earlier, Taliban announced that no Afghans is allow to be evacuated until the situation improves abroad for those who have already left, their spokesman said Sunday.
Families wanting to leave in future would also need a good excuse for doing so, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference, adding a promise to allow anyone to go abroad was not “continuous”.
More than 120,000 Afghans and dual nationals were evacuated up to August 31 when the last US-led troops withdrew, two weeks after the group seized Kabul.
Hundreds more were allowed to leave on flights after that, but the last official evacuation by air was on December 1.
Mujahid said the Taliban had received reports of thousands of Afghans “living in very bad conditions” in Qatar and Turkey.
“The government has the responsibility to protect the people so this will be stopped until we get the assurance that their lives will not be endangered,” he said.
He was responding to a question about reports circulating on social media that border officials had 
been told not to allow anyone to be evacuated, including by road.
After seizing power the Taliban promised Afghans would be allowed to come and go as they pleased, as long as they had passports and visas for their destinations but they also allowed thousands of people without travel documents to leave, mostly families with individuals who worked for US-led forces, embassies or other Western organizations over the last 20 years.
Thousands of people with similar links are still in Afghanistan, however, desperate to leave and fearful they may be targeted by the Taliban as “collaborators”.
Widespread retaliations have so far not been reliably reported, but the United Nations says more than 100 people with links to the former Western-backed regime have been killed by the Taliban.
Mujahid said the Taliban never promised to allow evacuations to run indefinitely.
“Initially we had said that the Americans (…) could take people whom they had any concerns about,” he said “but this is not a continuous promise.”
He said families who did not have “an excuse” to leave the country, would not be allowed to do so.
Mujahid also said women would be barred from travelling abroad unless accompanied by a male chaperone.
“This is the order of Islamic sharia law,” he said, adding officials were examining ways to make sure this didn’t affect women who may have scholarships to study abroad.
Restrictions introduced
Women are already banned from travelling between cities and towns unless with a close male relative.
After seizing power the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh interpretation of Islamic rule that characterized their rule from 1996-2001 but restrictions have slowly been introduced, if not by 
national edict, then implemented on the whim of local officials.
Even Afghans without links to the former regime are scrambling to leave the country, which has plunged into economic crisis since the Taliban takeover.
Thousands of people daily try to cross into neighboring Iran in search of work, or in a bid to reach European Union nations and the hope of asylum.
The United States has seized $7 billion in Afghan assets held abroad, reserving half for humanitarian aid that bypasses the Taliban, and half for a fund to compensate families of those who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
