Humanitarian Funds Can Be Sent to Afghanistan Without Violating Sanctions on Taliban: US Treasury Department

Taliban extremists stand guard along a street during a demonstration by people to condemn the recent protest by the Afghan women's rights activists, in Kabul, on Jan. 21, 2022. Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Treasury Department has told international banks and aid groups that they are allowed to transfer money to Afghanistan for humanitarian purposes without violating sanctions on the Taliban.

In guidance issued on Feb. 2, officials said that banks can process transactions for use in delivering humanitarian assistance “including clearing, settlement, and transfers through, to, or otherwise involving privately owned and state-owned Afghan depository institutions.”

It added that NGOs can “make salary support or stipend payments directly to health care workers, such as doctors at public hospitals or health care workers at community clinics.”

The department also authorized engagement with the Taliban and the Haqqani Network—which has been designated a terrorist organization and blacklisted by the United States—to facilitate such transactions and for humanitarian aid coordination.

“Similarly, even to the extent doing so would involve transacting with the Taliban and/or Haqqani Network, NGOs can make such salary support or stipend payments directly to teachers, including teachers at Afghan public and private schools,” officials said.

“In addition, payments of taxes, fees, or import duties to, or the purchase or receipt of permits, licenses, or public utility services from, the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, or any entity in which the Taliban or the Haqqani Network owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest, are authorized ... if ordinarily incident and necessary to activities.”

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year, Washington promptly ordered the militant Islamic group’s U.S. assets frozen and barred Americans from dealing with them so as to prevent it from falling into the group’s hands.

While the group initially vowed to run the country more moderately than when it last held power 20 years ago, Afghans and the international community remain skeptical of such claims amid reports of executions, arrests, detentions, and threats while Afghanistan’s education and social services are on the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, the country faces mass famine conditions and the United Nations Secretary-General has said almost half of the population of Afghanistan—18 million people—needs urgent humanitarian assistance to survive.

However, the U.N. and aid groups are struggling to get money into the country to help alleviate the crisis as international banks remain wary of facilitating such transactions.

On Jan. 11, however, the White House—noting that the United States remains the single largest donor of humanitarian to Afghanistan—announced it would send more than $308 million in aid to the country.

The aid will be distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development through independent humanitarian groups and will include “protection and shelter, essential health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation, and hygiene services in response to the growing humanitarian needs exacerbated by COVID-19 and healthcare shortages, drought, malnutrition, and the winter season,” officials said.

That amount would bring the total U.S. humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees in the region to nearly $782 million since October 2021, White House National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said.