The Taliban’s interim government has started the process of sending Afghan laborers to seek employment opportunities in the Gulf country of Qatar to tackle the unemployment problem in Afghanistan.
According to Afghan officials, talks are ongoing to send Afghan workers to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey and Russia.
On Tuesday, the registration of 2,000 skilled people from the fields of hoteling, food and beverages and engineering began under this new program.
Under this scheme, candidates from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan can submit their professional skills and credentials and the authorities will evaluate their eligibility.
The registration comes at a time when at least 1.5 million Afghans have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan from neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan in recent months. Currently, Afghanistan is suffering from a serious economic and humanitarian crisis.
Aid agencies have warned that Afghan nationals returning to the country have put pressure on local facilities and remittances from workers abroad have also dropped significantly.
The Taliban’s interim labor minister, Abdul Manan Omari, called the program to send workers abroad an “important and fundamental step”.
He said that negotiations are ongoing with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey and Russia.
Abdul Manan Omari wrote on social media platform X on Monday: ‘We are committed to sending skilled, semi-skilled and professional Afghan workers to these countries. We are committed to protecting the legal rights of Afghan labor and their safety abroad. Our aim is to prevent illegal migration and to maintain the dignity and respect of Afghan workers.’
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Although Russia is the only country in the world that recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, other countries have low-level diplomatic relations with the Taliban.
Qatar proved to be an important hub during the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Qatar is the country where the diplomatic office of the Taliban is located and in 2019 it was here that peace talks were held between the Taliban and the administration of then US President Donald Trump.
Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said that this move to send labor to Qatar will help reduce unemployment and support the economy through remittances.
Millions of people in Afghanistan still rely on humanitarian aid, but aid agencies and NGOs are facing severe funding shortfalls, leading to reduced work in the education and health sectors.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said at the launch of the program on Monday: ‘The process of legally sending skilled and professional Afghan workers abroad will have a positive impact on the national economy and reduce unemployment.’
He further said that the Taliban government has been working on domestic and foreign investment, promotion of trade relations and infrastructure projects for the last four years to reduce unemployment.
According to Al Jazeera’s report, in 2023, the supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, met with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, in the southern city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was his first public meeting with a foreign leader.
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