ISLAMABAD (AP) \u2014 The Taliban are exporting Afghan workers to fill jobs in the Gulf nation of Qatar to ease unemployment in Afghanistan, and say talks are underway to send labor to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, and Russia.<\/p>\n
Registration opened Tuesday for 2,000 skilled professionals in areas including hospitality, food and beverage, and engineering to go to Qatar under the new program. Applicants from all 34 Afghan provinces can submit their work experience and credentials before being assessed for eligibility.<\/p>\n
The registration launch follows the forced returns of at least 1.5 million Afghans from neighboring countries<\/a>, notably Iran and Pakistan, at a time of significant economic and humanitarian difficulty. <\/p>\n Aid agencies have warned of pressure on local services, as well as dramatically reduced flows of money flowing into the country in the form of remittances from people working abroad. <\/p>\n Acting Labor Minister Abdul Manan Omari described the labor export program as a \u201csignificant and foundational step.\u201d He said talks also were under way with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, and Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to sending skilled, semi-skilled, and professional workers to these countries in the future as well,\u201d Omari said Monday on the social platform X. \u200e <\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to the protection of Afghan workers\u2019 legal rights and safety abroad. Our goal is to prevent illegal migration and uphold the dignity and honor of Afghan workers,\u201d Omari said.<\/p>\n While only Russia has recognized<\/a> the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, the other countries have diplomatic relations with Kabul.<\/p>\n Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base<\/a> in the region, served as a crucial point for those fleeing the Taliban in the chaotic days of the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2021. It also hosts a diplomatic post for the Taliban and hosted peace talks<\/a> in 2019-20 between them and the U.S. administration of then-President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban\u2019s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, said the Qatar labor initiative would help to ease unemployment and help the economy \u2014 presumably through remittances.<\/p>\n Many Afghans depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. But deep funding cuts<\/a> are worsening<\/a> the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations scaling back education and health care programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe legal process of sending skilled and professional Afghan workers abroad will positively impact the national economy and help reduce unemployment,\u201d Baradar said at the program\u2019s launch on Monday.<\/p>\n \u200eHe said the government had been working for four years to lower the unemployment rate through foreign and domestic investment, expanded trade relations, and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada met<\/a> Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Afghanistan\u2019s southern city of Kandahar, Al Jazeera English reported<\/a>. It was the first such publicly known meeting between Akhundzada and a foreign official. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD (AP) \u2014 The Taliban are exporting Afghan workers to fill jobs in the Gulf nation of Qatar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[114899,114900,2881,103014,51,5293,32,4179,3058,897,8175,114901,6860,47860,15895,2880,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-315463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-abdul-ghani-baradar","9":"tag-abdul-manan-omari","10":"tag-afghanistan","11":"tag-afghanistan-government","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-diplomacy","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-international-trade","17":"tag-jobs","18":"tag-labor","19":"tag-mohammed-bin-rashid-al-maktoum","20":"tag-qatar","21":"tag-qatar-government","22":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","23":"tag-taliban","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114966819188316383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}