The Taliban demands financial aid or more migrants will come

Taliban demands financial aid

The Taliban demands financial aid or more migrants will come image pixabay

The Taliban demands financial aid or more migrants will come. The Taliban government on Wednesday, November 17, called on the US Congress in an open letter to end sanctions and resume the flow of aid and assets to Afghan banks to address the crisis in the country.

“I request the US government to take responsible steps to address the unfolding humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in the letter.

Frozen funds

The funds remains frozen, following the Taliban’s expulsion of Western authorities from the country last August. Western economies want to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, but also do not want to recognise the Taliban as the ruling authority.

The US will not release its package of some $9 billion in funds, but Afghanistan expects European countries to do so – for example, Germany, which holds half a million Afghan funds.

Famine crisis

In view of the famine crisis in Afghanistan, and the growing threat from the ISIS-K terrorist group, the Taliban demands financial aid and has begun pressuring international entities to return the trillions of dollars they have stored in funds in the US Federal Reserve and various European central banks.

A representative of its finance department said “the government was committed to respecting human rights, including women’s education, in return for recovering the funds. These would be in addition to donations the country already receives in humanitarian aid”, which the spokesperson called “small relief”. The amount of this “small relief” is estimated at 150 billion US dollars since the beginning of the decade.

“This money belongs to the Afghan nation. Just give us back our own money,” ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal told Reuters. “Freezing these funds is unethical, and it is against all international laws and values.”

A major European bank, whose nationality is not yet known, called on European countries to release their share of the Afghan funds’ reserves to avoid a possible economic collapse that would trigger mass migration to Europe.

Desperate

“The situation is desperate, and the amount of money is decreasing all the time,” Shah Mehrabi, an associate at the Afghan central bank, told Reuters. “Right now we have enough to get Afghanistan through to the end of the year.

Migrants will come

“Europe is going to be the hardest hit if Afghanistan does not agree to this money,” Mehrabi said. “You will have the double problem of not being able to find sustenance and not being able to pay for it. People are going to be desperate. They are going to leave for Europe, which is why the Taliban demands financial aid.

Western economies want to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, but they also do not want to recognise the Taliban as the ruling authority. Mehrabi announces that while he knows the US will not release its package of some $9 billion in funds, he hopes that European countries will – for example, Germany, which is holding half a million Afghan funds.

Afghanistan will need $150 million a month to “prevent the impending crisis”, and to keep the local currency and its prices stable.

“If reserves remain frozen, Afghan importers will not be able to pay for their shipments, banks will collapse, food will become scarce and supermarkets will empty.


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