Special Afghanistan Cell set up by ministry working overtime on repatriation

NEW DELHI:  The Special Afghanistan Cell, which was set up by the Ministry of External Affairs a day after the Taliban seized power in Kabul, has been working round the clock to ensure that the requests of Indian nationals and Afghans wanting to return are being processed.

The cell is being managed at any given point in time by around eight-nine young foreign service officers. In total, this cell comprises a team of 20 Indian Foreign Service officers. After the formation of a special cell to ensure repatriation of Indians during the pandemic, this is the second special cell that the ministry has constituted to deal with emergency requests from Afghanistan. 

According to officials, the cell coordinated with different divisions of the ministry to ensure that the processing of requests is not delayed. Officials said that a few hundred Indians are still in Afghanistan.
Last week, India evacuated around 200 nationals, including the Indian envoy to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon, after the Taliban forces reached the gates of Kabul. Following the fleeing of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the takeover  of the war-torn country by the militia, the MEA constituted the cell.

“MEA’s 24x7 Special Afghanistan Cell has been reinforced. UPDATED contact details: Phone numbers: +91-11-49016783, +91-11-49016784, +91-11-49016785WhatsApp number: +91-8010611290 Email: SituationRoom@mea.gov.in,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had tweeted.

Following the change of power, for the first time India has started an e-visa system for Afghans wanting to come to India. The visa would be given for a period of six months after scrutiny of the application.
New Delhi has also been in touch the Sikh and Hindu community leaders and has assured them of repatriating the community members once commercial operations of flights begin from Afghanistan. A number of them have taken shelter in a gurdawra near the capital of Afghanistan.