The women’s youth team of Afghanistan managed to reach Pakistan. A total of 115 people, including athletes and family members, crossed the Torkham border after the government issued them with emergency humanitarian visas to leave the country following the takeover of the Taliban.
Most of Afghanistan’s women’s national team had already managed to flee in the last week of August after an agreement with the Australian government. The youth team, on the other hand, not having regular documents and passports, had not yet left the Afghan territory. They had since gone into hiding to escape the Taliban. The initiative to bring the 32 players, including their families, to Pakistan was initiated by the UK-based NGO Football for Peace, in collaboration with the government and the Pakistani Football Federation of Ashfaq Hussain Shah, which is not yet recognized. from Fifa.
The young athletes were originally supposed to travel to Qatar, where Afghan refugees were housed in a facility for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but were stranded after a bomb went off at Kabul airport on August 26. Since that time, they have had to face threats from the Taliban on a daily basis due to their involvement in sport, but now they have managed to escape.