In view of the slumping situation in Afghanistan, the Indian government announced permission to Afghan nationals to enter the country only with an e-visa, given the misplacement of several people’s passports too in the hullabaloo.
The Ministry of Home Affairs made the update today, highlighting the dire condition of Afghanistan and the steps being taken to ensure security and protection of citizens in the war-ridden nation after the Taliban seized control of the land.
E-visa or “e-Emergency X-Misc visa” is a category of visas created days back, primarily for the Afghan nationals who are being evacuated or fleeing Afghanistan and reaching India. According to officials, these visas will have a validity of 6 months.
This announcement was made through a statement released recently. “Owing to the prevailing security situation in Afghanistan and streamlining of the visa process by introduction of the ”e-Emergency X-Misc visa”, it has been decided that all Afghan nationals henceforth must travel to India only on e-Visa,” The MHA had said.
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This comes following reports of some Afghan nationals losing their passports due to the tense situation in their country. Hence, the Home Ministry nullified the visas issued to all Afghan nationals, who are not in India, with immediate effect.
With Indian embassy staff evacuated from Afghanistan, it has become difficult to issue regular visas to all. Applications are now being evaluated and processed in New Delhi, officials said.
Till now, 626 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan. 228 of these are Indian citizens though this doesn’t include the staff members who worked in the Indian Embassy, Minister Hardeep Puri said. India has also evacuated 77 Afghan Sikhs, he added.
With priority to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, India had announced earlier that it would “facilitate repatriation to India of those who wish to leave Afghanistan”.
The series of efforts being taken follow the turn of events in the south Asian country where the Taliban took sweeping control of the Presidential Palace. This was after the US started withdrawing its forces from the country on May 1st.
The seize came rapidly and every city turned in to the armed group as Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, too fell to the Taliban on August 15th and many citizens tried to flee the country to save themselves from the expected “regressive” regime of the new rulers. They are afraid of the 1990s history repeating itself when the Taliban had first come to power, though the armed group has assured of safety for all.
