Thousands of Afghans across the UK and Ireland face losing a crucial layer of support as the country’s embassy in London shuts down – with staff having been told to apply for political asylum or prepare to leave Britain.
The mission is closing at the end of the month “at the official request” of the British government after the Taliban government dismissed the embassy’s staff for refusing to represent it.
The embassy is staffed by representatives of Afghanistan’s previous regime, which was backed by the West before the Taliban regained power in 2021.
The Taliban’s foreign ministry said in July it would no longer recognize papers issued by Afghan embassies in the UK and several other European countries due to a lack of “coordination”.
The UK, like the US and 13 other mostly European countries, does not recognize the Taliban and is thus unlikely to allow them to reopen the embassy anytime soon.
This means Afghans, including refugees, seeking to renew passports, get consular paperwork done or obtain travel documents, will be required to contact Kabul after 27 September.
The UK government evacuated some 25,000 Afghans in August 2021 before Nato forces left Afghanistan. Most, if not all, of them reportedly require documents of one type or another.
This is not the first time that the Afghan embassy in London has closed its doors.
It was previously shut down after the 1978 communist coup in Kabul because of its “anti-west bias and intimate relations with the former Soviet Union”, according to the embassy’s website.
The mission was then closed again from 1996 to 2001 when the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan.
In the three years since they returned to power after overthrowing the Nato-backed regime in Kabul, the Taliban have fostered diplomatic relations with several major countries including China, Russia, and Pakistan.
