The 9/11 legacy continues to haunt Afghans

It has been twenty-three years since the September 11 attacks on the United States. What ensued afterward was a devastating war that the US imposed on Afghanistan to drive the Taliban from power.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them Afghan civilians, were killed in the war that saw Washington spend more than $2 trillion to flush out Taliban fighters from their hideouts in the mountains.

But in 2021, the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, and the Taliban took control of Kabul. While Afghanistan is no longer scarred by near-daily suicide bombings, the reluctance of Western powers to recognise the Taliban government has compounded the misery of ordinary Afghans.

Earlier this week, the UK said that the Afghan embassy in London will stop functioning by the end of September.

The decision comes after the Taliban fired the embassy's staff that was hired by the previous US-backed government of Afghanistan.

Until now, officials appointed by the pre-Taliban administration have staffed the West London mission. It continued to issue and renew visas and passports in the name of the former republic, which is often rejected by the Taliban.

But now, with the closure of the embassy, Afghans in London cannot get any paperwork done.

Some Afghans say the UK should allow the Taliban to post its representatives at the embassy to avoid unnecessary trouble that people will face if they want to travel to Afghanistan.

"Technically, with the Taliban administration's officials in the Afghan embassy in London, life will become easy for Afghans living in the UK, as well as for British citizens wanting to obtain a visa to Afghanistan," Sami Yousafzai, a senior Afghan-British analyst, who lives in London

Countries like Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates, which do not officially recognise the Taliban administration, have allowed Taliban officials to manage the diplomatic missions in their countries.

Yousafzai said the UK won't allow Taliban diplomats to work on its soil because it's worried that the move would be seen as an endorsement of the Taliban administration.

"(But) it is a reality now, the Taliban are in power," Yousafzai tells TRT World.

"We must go through them, as it will make things easier for Afghans living abroad."