
Taliban officials in Afghanistan said on Saturday that they will begin issuing passports in Kabul, providing optimism to those who feel threatened by the Islamists' authority.
Thousands of Afghans have also sought for fresh travel passports in order to flee an escalating economic and humanitarian catastrophe that the UN has dubbed an "avalanche of hunger."
According to Alam Gul Haqqani, the chief of the interior ministry's passport department, the authorities will begin issuing travel papers at Kabul's passport office on Sunday.
Following the Taliban's return to power on August 15, tens of thousands of Afghans hurried to Kabul's lone airport in the hopes of catching any international flight that may escape them.
The passport office in Kabul was reopened in October, but workdays were suspended when a deluge of thousands of applications forced the biometric technology to fail.
"All of the technological concerns have now been rectified," Haqqani said, adding that individuals who had previously filed for travel permits will be granted them first.
He stated that new applications will be accepted beginning January 10.
The Taliban's decision to issue passports is considered as a test of their commitment to the international community to enable qualified persons to escape despite the humanitarian catastrophe.
The Taliban are pleading with donors to reinstate billions of dollars in aid that was halted when the last Western-backed administration crumbled as the US forces withdrew.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, the unexpected withholding of aid is a "unprecedented" blow to an economy already devastated by drought and decades of war.
Many people in the city have been compelled to sell their belongings in order to buy food for their family as a result of the crisis.
International flights, primarily to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have gradually restarted at Kabul airport after it was ravaged in August by a stampede of people fleeing the city.