A senior Taliban official said on Saturday that all the Afghan who fled the country after the collapse of the former government backed by the West are free to return home, promising that they would not be harmed if they return.
Prime Minister Talibán, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, made Amnesty’s offer in his message for the Islamic party of Eid Al-Adha, also known as the “feast of sacrifice.”
The offer comes days after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced a prohibition of traveling in 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The measure greatly prohibits Afghans who hope to reset in the United States permanently, as well as those who hope to go to the United States temporarily, such as university study.
Trump also suspended a central refugee program in January, almost support for Afghans who had allied with the United States and leaving tens of thousands of them stranded.
The Afghan in the neighbor Pakistan who expect resettlement are also dealing with a deportation campaign of the Islamabad government to get them out of the country. Almost a million have left Pakistan since October 2023 to avoid arrest and expulsion.
Akhund’s vacation message was published on Social platform X.
“The Afghan who have abandoned the country should return to their homeland,” he said. “No one will harm them.”
“Go back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace,” he added, and instructed the officials to adequately administer the services for refugees that return and ensure that they are provided with refuge and support.
He also used the occasion to criticize the media for doing what he said they were “false judgments” about the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan and their policies.
“We should not allow the Islamic system torch to get extinct,” he said. “The media should avoid false judgments and should not minimize system achievements. While there are challenges, we must remain attentive.”
The Taliban dragged the capital Kabul and confiscated most of Afghanistan in a bombing in mid -August 2021, since US and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
The offensive caused a massive exodus, with tens of thousands of Afghas, crowding the airport in chaotic scenes, with the hope of a flight in the military transfer of the United States. People also fled through the border, the neighbor Iran and Pakistan.
Among those who escaped the new Taliban rulers were also former government officials, journalists, activists, those who had helped the United States during their campaign against the Taliban.
