Afghan Passports Being issued to members of Terrorist Organizations: EUISS

DID Press: The European Union Institute for Security Studies said that Afghan passports are being issued to members of terrorist organizations, which makes their tracking and identification more challenging.

The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) has said in a report titled “Security risks emanating from Afghanistan” that the Taliban has started the process of issuing passports to members of terrorist organizations.

Based on this report, there is a growing concern in the international community that terrorists can travel and operate freely by changing their identities and that the world’s security institutions lose track of terrorists.
The EUISS has raised serious concerns in the report.
The report says the dominance of the Taliban in Afghanistan post-August 2021 has caused security fragility beyond the borders of Afghanistan and has altered regional dynamics, impacting the Taliban’s own external relationships with the bordering countries.
The report adds that the main challenge in assessing the growing terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan is the continuous ties of the Taliban with a range of terrorist organizations.

Referring to the flow of foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) to Afghanistan, the report added that currently between 8 000 and 10 000 FTF are operating in Afghanistan, with most having traveled from Pakistan but also from the Central Asia region, the North Caucasus of Russia, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.
According to the report, 3,000 to 4,000 of these fighters are affiliated with the Taliban, especially the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).
The EUISS has further said these risks are posed not only by the Taliban itself but also by additional Islamist terrorist groups such as ISKP, TTP and ETIM, some of which operate with the Taliban’s acquiescence. This underlines the complexity and multi-layered nature of the security threat emanating from Afghanistan.

The observations made in this brief call for a targeted security response that includes the pooling of EU resources and enhanced cooperation across Member States, rather than leaving it to each Member State to deal with the threat on a national level. Furthermore, the report highly recommends that the EU work in tandem with EUROPOL when it comes to the use of the internet and digital means for the identification and tracking-down of FTFs.
In September 2021, the EU Council endorsed the counterterrorism action plan on Afghanistan, which should serve as a roadmap for the maintenance of appropriate terrorism risk mitigation measures. The EU Council resolution from March 2023 has added to the EU’s ongoing roadmap.

The EU should also significantly increase its ability to interact with internet service providers, including on terrorism-related content.
The EU can apply sanctions autonomously against ISIS/Da’esh and al-Qaeda and persons and entities that are associated with or support them.
Furthermore, existing information exchange mechanisms with the UN, in particular with UNAMA, should be strengthened.
The EUISS called for increased EU counterterrorism engagement in Central Asia, as well as EU cooperation with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Gulf countries.