Afghans denied entry in Saudi Arabia over fake passport extension

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some Afghan citizens have been sent back from the airport by Saudi Arabia authorities over doubt on the validity of stickers showing the extension of passports.

Afghanistan’s embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed the issue and said efforts were underway to resolve the problem.

Four months ago the Central Passport Office had said that due to technical issues the issuance and extension of passports had been stopped and without serious ill persons nobody was granted passports.

Afghan embassies in foreign countries have been extending the validity of passports based on special stickers thus Afghans send their passports to these countries to extend their passports.

Some Afghans, however, complained that they traveled to Saudi Arabia on stickers extended passports but they were sent back from the airport by Saudi authorities.

Mohammad Safi, an Afghan student in Saudi Arabia told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Three of his family members travelled from the UAE to Madina Munawara to perform Umra but one person whose passport was extended by a sticker was not allowed.”

He added since his family member that was not allowed was a woman so the two others also had to stay with her and had no option but to return back to the UAE.

Safi shared a video with Pajhwok Afghan News which his family members recorded at the airport in Madina Munawara.

Another Afghan in the video also claimed that he arrived in Madina Munawara from Canada, but he was not allowed to enter Saudi Arabia.

He asked people not to travel to Saudi Arabia on passports the validity of which is extended on stickers.

He asked the IEA to resolve the passport related problems in all the countries.

Abdul Basir Kharotai, Afghanistan Counsel Affairs in-charge, in Riyadh, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the issue had been created from the past one week.

“’We talked with Saudi officials who said that some people from Pakistan arrived in Saudi Arabia on extended passports the stickers of which were fake and this issue had generated their concerns.”

Over 300,000 Afghans live in Saudi Arabia majority of whom direly needed the renewal of their passports adding that efforts were on to resolve the problem.

Last year Pajhwok reported that Afghanistan’s diplomatic mission in Bonn, Germany, extended passports on the bases of stickers while other Afghan embassies made arbitrary changes to renew passports and printed white passport booklets, but failed.

The acting government at that time termed these acts as illegal as long as they were not coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that there was no need for printing passports elsewhere as there were enough of them available.

Following the political change in the country, contacts of some of Afghan embassies have been cut off with the new government.

This comes as Afghans living abroad need to extend their passports and other needed documents by Afghan embassies, who should operate under a single framework of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.