Afghans Complain of Widespread Bribery Demands for Passports

Afghanistan’s independent Tolo News on Thursday reported widespread complaints of corruption at the Taliban-controlled passport department, including blatant demands for bribes in exchange for passport approval.

One applicant told Tolo News he was expected to pay “about 700 or 800 dollars” in bribes to obtain a passport – a huge sum in the comprehensively wrecked Afghan economy, especially since the Taliban issued a surprise ban on U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies on Wednesday.

Dollars are the preferred currency for important transactions in Afghanistan, including bribes. Humanitarian groups are worried the ban on foreign currencies will make it impossible for them to conduct relief activities in the impoverished Taliban-dominated country.

Taliban officials told Tolo News they have “arrested several people” on corruption charges, including at least one employee of the passport department’s biometric section. 

One of those officials was Alam Gul Haqqani, head of the Taliban passport office. Haqqani said in late October that every Afghan citizen was entitled to receive a passport and pledged that after weeks of delays, his office would soon be issuing 5,000 to 6,000 passports a day.

The Taliban recruited much of its support by claiming it would run a more clean and honest bureaucracy than the U.S.-supported civilian government it overthrew. 

There is little question that corruption was endemic in that civilian government. U.S. Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko warned corruption was “the most insidious threat” facing the American project in Afghanistan, including frequent demands by officials for bribes to perform even their most basic functions. Sopko presciently warned that corrupt Afghan officials could not be trusted to deliver accurate reports on military readiness.

Writing at USA Today on Monday, former anti-corruption policy adviser Sunil Srivastava said corruption played a major role in the Taliban’s return to power because the Afghan people felt oppressed by the hopelessly greedy civilian government – especially with so many bribe-hungry officials in the justice system – so the Taliban were able to present themselves as liberators.

Srivastava castigated U.S. and other Western agencies for refusing to accept how big the graft problem was in Afghanistan or to devise effective strategies for holding corrupt officials responsible. Some of the officials removed by investigations he was familiar with simply reappeared in new government positions a few months later.

Srivastava said nation-building failed, in part, because the best efforts of human rights organizations were stymied by the corrupt cesspool of the Afghan bureaucracy. The lofty talk of U.S. officials and international activists bore little resemblance to constant demands for bribery that marked daily life for many Afghans. Those enlisted to fight against the Taliban had little faith their bribe-fueled government could protect their loved ones against terrorist reprisals.

“The leaders of our national governments and international organizations should reflect on the role that institutionalized arrogance, insularity, risk aversion and disengagement from ground realities has played in the horrific events that have unfolded over the past month, and what our true commitment to promoting democratic values, including human rights, truly is,” he concluded.