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Afghanistan
Afghans in Saudi seek govt help in changing passports
2006-07-22
KABUL, July 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Thousands of Afghan refugees in Saudi controlled Arabia are facing acute problems while changing their Pakistani passports to Afghan passport. Most of them have been put behind the bars for holding Afghan passports without visas. Due to long wars and unemployment the Afghans first migrated to the neigbouring Pakistan from where they left for Saudi Arabia by Pakistani passports.
You have to sympathesize a little, it's not like the Taliban was issuing documents to regular schmoes.
Haji Azim, representative of the Afghan Refugees in Riyadh, told Pajhwok Afghan News via telephone that about 60 Afghan nationals, who changed their passports, had been arrested in the last two weeks. These Afghans were arrested because they had no visa on their passports, he added.

The Afghans were compelled to arrive Pakistan from Saudi Arabia and then to Afghanistan. He said the Afghan nationals would face harsh treatment if they reached Pakistan. He said: "We have been tortured in Pakistani airport for alleged links with terrorist and al-Qaeda."
Since the ISI has to cover its tracks somehow.
Haji Habibullah, one of the Afghan refugees in Saudi, told this news agency via telephone the Afghan embassy in Riyadh did not help in resolving their problems. About 450 Afghan nationals were apprehended for having no visa, he said, adding President Hamid Karzai had promised cooperation during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia.

Confirming the problems to Afghan refugees, Afghan ambassador Mohammad Kabir Farahi told this news agency via telephone Afghans were facing hurdles in Riyadh but the Saudi officials had promised cooperation. He said passport changing was not a legal problem, but it took times to ascertain if the applicants were really Afghans.
Since people holding Pak passports come from all over the world.
About 15,000 copies of passports had been issued to Afghans in Saudi Arabia in one and half year, he said, adding over 50,000 Afghans were living in here with legal documents.

However, Haji Shahzad Gul, who lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, said he had returned from Saudi month and a half back. Gul said he changed his Pakistani passport to Afghan some two years back, but Afghan embassy was yet to get information from Pakistan embassy. He said: "I was afraid of being nabbed in Saudi because the information was yet to reach here." He believed his country's embassy could solve the problems and urged afghan government for further cooperation.

Afghan foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta said a joint commission to solve problems of the Afghans living in Saudi Arabia was constituted. The commission besides resolving passports will also work to redress their other problems. He also informed about his upcoming visit to Saudi and said:" I will really discuss the issue with the Saudi officials and I will try to resolve problems of my countrymen."
Posted by:Steve White

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