KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (NNN-Bernama) — The Afghanistan Embassy in Malaysia, which is operating as usual after the takeover of the country by Taliban on August 15, is busy engaging with its community here on their concerns about their future due to the political changes there.
Afghanistan Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Moheb Rahman Spinghar said Afghan students, especially female students, including those with families here, have voiced their concerns and fear about returning back now upon completion of their studies here, to face the new reality in their country.
“Their big concerns are about women rights and job security as things are not completely back to normal following the hasty withdrawal of American troops and the collapse of the previous government,” he told Bernama in an interview at the embassy.
“We are planning to discuss with relevant authorities here about their predicament and plights,” Dr Moheb said.
He said problems will also arise if any of the Afghan nationals’ visas expires and they face difficulties to return home or reluctant to return home now.
Replying to a question, Dr Moheb said that so far, no information has been received by the embassy about any Afghans in Malaysia intending to return back home after the political changes there.
About the operation of the embassy, Dr Moheb said the Afghan Foreign Ministry in Kabul has instructed all Afghan missions overseas to operate as usual.
He said besides respect for human and women’s rights as being called for by the international community as well as the Afghan people, forming an inclusive government in Afghanistan is very important to the overall peace and political stability in Afghanistan.
“Of course there are a lot of open questions Taliban have to answer…about the structure of the government, participation of ethnic and religious minorities in the government, (and) women and human rights. I am not negative nor positive (on this),” he said.
The ambassador said there are currently about 4,000-5,000 Afghans here including the refugees, students and the business community. From this number, around 700 of them are Afghan students pursuing higher education at universities in Malaysia.
Dr Moheb said he believes Afghan students will continue to come to Malaysia to pursue their higher education here once the situation gets much better there.
“Malaysia is an important educational hub in the Southeast Asian region for the Afghans,” he said.
He explained that despite the change of government in Afghanistan, there is also opportunities for Malaysia’s business community to invest in the mineral sector as Afghanistan is extremely rich in mineral deposits like gold, uranium, copper, oil, natural gas, lithium, chromium and iron ore – worth some US$3 trillion.
“I am also looking forward for Malaysia to increase bilateral trade with Afghanistan which now is very much (based) on palm oil exports to my country,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused some constraints in the bilateral trade – both export and import.
Dr Moheb pointed out that doing business in Afghanistan also means a route for more trade opportunities with regional and neighbouring countries which has huge markets for Malaysian goods and products such as in Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and China.
— NNN-BERNAMA