Taliban ask India to grant visas to Afghan traders, students and patients

The Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has requested India to facilitate visas for Afghan traders, patients, and students. The appeal came during a high-level meeting between Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai on Wednesday.

A statement issued by the Afghan foreign ministry said both sides agreed to facilitate visas and trade, though a statement from the Indian external affairs ministry is silent on visas, but said Misri “conveyed India’s readiness to respond to the urgent developmental needs of the Afghan people.”

This is the first such high-level meeting between India and Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

India, which had scrapped all visas issued to Afghan nationals who were yet to arrive in India following Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, had rolled out a new category of e-emergency X-Misc Visa for Afghans who wanted to travel to India.

Afghan nationals had to apply for an Indian visa on the e-visa portal, and only those who had electronic travel authorization for the e-emergency X-Misc Visa were allowed  to board flights to India.

Several Afghan students who wanted to pursue higher education in India at the time were left stranded in Afghanistan.

Though India continues to offer humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, its diplomats stationed at the embassy in Kabul had returned in the aftermath Taliban taking power.

Since June 2022, an Indian technical team has been stationed at the embassy and is actively providing humanitarian assistance.

An Afghan media statement issued following the meeting between Muttaqi and Misri said India is keen on helping the landlocked country “undertake infrastructure projects, expand relations in the political and economic fields, and promote trade through the Chabahar port.”

The Chabahar port offers an important gateway for India to access iron from Afghanistan’s Hajigak mine and other natural resources from the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

India is developing Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti port, operating its cargo and container terminal for 10 years starting May 2024, with ₹400 crore allocated from FY17 to FY24.

Of this, ₹201.51 crore has been spent, enhancing India’s access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

In response to the needs of the Afghan people, India has so far dispatched several shipments of wheat, medicines, earthquake relief aid, pesticides, and polio doses, with the external affairs ministry adding that  India will continue providing further material support in the health sector and rehabilitating refugees.