Afghans in UK and Ireland left in lurch as embassy shuts down in London

Britain asks mission to shut up shop after Taliban dismisses its staff for refusing to represent their government

The Afghanistan embassy in London (Getty)

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 Independent understands.

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.

An eight months pregnant Afghan refugee in Dublin fears for her child’s future with the embassy closing. “My child is coming into a world where the mother’s documents are no longer valid and my infant’s nationality is in jeopardy now,” the woman, who asked not to be named, told The Independent.

“My passport has already expired and I will not be allowed to renew it. I cannot go back to Afghanistan, where they are disapproving of any working woman,” she said.

The embassy is staffed by representatives of Afghanistan’s previous regime, which was backed by the west before the Taliban regained power in 2021.

She had been invited to work at conferences in Spain, the woman claimed, but couldn’t travel without a passport.

Afghanistan’s embassy in London looks set to close on 27 September (Getty)

“I cannot go back home until the Taliban is there and now I am not allowed to leave Ireland,” she said, adding that her family was scattered in Afghanistan and other countries.

The Taliban’s foreign ministry said in July it would no longer recognise 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 recognise 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.

“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in London is scheduled to officially close and will cease its operations on 27 September 2024 at the official request of the host country,” Zalmai Rassoul, who represented the previous regime as ambassador to the UK and Ireland, said.

Mr Rassoul and his staff are said to have been told to apply for political asylum or prepare to leave the UK in 90 days, sources told The Independent.

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.