(31 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO ACCESS AFGHANISTAN INTERNATIONAL
Kabul, Afghanistan – 30 July 2025
1. Hundreds of Afghans in long queues at registration centre in Kabul for Qatar work visa, officer using whip to disperse the queues
2. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Najib Bari, visa applicant:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS IN PREVIOUS SHOT, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 3++
"I am a civil engineer. I went to Pakistan for work as well, but I couldn’t find a reasonable job and came back to Afghanistan. Today is the second day that I have been standing in this long queue. It seems that everyone is poor and jobless. We found out that the government is sending people to Qatar for work, so we want to go there for work, and we are requesting the government send us there for work so we can earn money to feed our children."
3. Various of Afghan nationals inside registration centre holding documents
4. Afghans inside centre registering for visas
5. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Samiullah Ibrahimi, Labor Ministry spokesman:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS IN PREVIOUS SHOT, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 6++
"For now, an understanding has been reached with the private sector, and an agreement has been signed with a Qatari state-owned company. In the first phase, 2,000 job opportunities were mentioned, but fortunately, 1,100 more job opportunities were added yesterday. This means that 3,100 people will be given a job.”
6. Various of Afghans holding documents outside registration centre
STORYLINE:
The Taliban are exporting Afghan workers to fill jobs in the Gulf nation of Qatar to ease unemployment in Afghanistan, and say talks are underway to send labor to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, and Russia.
Registration opened Tuesday for 2,000 skilled professionals in areas including hospitality, food and beverage, and engineering to go to Qatar under the new program.
Applicants from all 34 Afghan provinces can submit their work experience and credentials before being assessed for eligibility.
The registration launch follows the forced returns of at least 1.5 million Afghans from neighboring countries, notably Iran and Pakistan, at a time of significant economic and humanitarian difficulty.
Aid agencies have warned of pressure on local services, as well as dramatically reduced flows of money flowing into the country in the form of remittances from people working abroad.
While only Russia has recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, the other countries have diplomatic relations with Kabul.
Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base in the region, served as a crucial point for those fleeing the Taliban in the chaotic days of the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
It also hosts a diplomatic post for the Taliban and hosted peace talks in 2019-20 between them and the U.S. administration of then-President Donald Trump.
Many Afghans depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. But deep funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations scaling back education and health care programs.
In 2023, the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada met Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, Al Jazeera English reported.
It was the first such publicly known meeting between Akhundzada and a foreign official.
AP Video shot by: Saddiqullah Alizai
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