Thousands of Afghan civil servants have become unable to leave the country

The Taliban government has banned thousands of former Afghan government employees from leaving the country without special permission.

According to a statement from the Taliban government, in 2025, more than 8,000 former civil servants of Ashraf Ghani’s government are not allowed to leave the country.

A letter published by the Taliban’s Office for Control and Enforcement of Government Orders emphasizes that these individuals are not allowed to leave the country due to dozens of pages of criminal cases.

By order of Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, these individuals are deprived of the right to leave Afghanistan without his written permission.

The letter states that in the event of administrative and criminal cases being initiated against Taliban officials, they also do not have the right to leave the country without the written permission of the Taliban leader.

Afghan experts note that when the Taliban came to power, they declared a “comprehensive amnesty” for former Afghan government officials, but now hundreds of pages of criminal cases have been initiated against them.

Opposition Afghan media reported that a hacker group recently published hundreds of pages of documents from several Taliban ministries, including the Office for Control and Enforcement of Government Orders.

The letter from the Taliban leader does not provide details about the cases of former Afghan officials, but some former civil servants of Ashraf Ghani’s government claim that the current Afghan authorities want to bring charges against former officials on various counts.