Afghanistan: Hapag-Lloyd continues to secure container transports

Hapag-Lloyd continues to secure container supplies for the country. Afghanistan primarily imports machinery and groceries. The containers are mainly transported via the Pakistani border crossings at Chaman and Torkham by truck into Afghanistan.

Containers destined for Kandahar and Herat are delivered via Chaman. Via Torkham, supplies are secured for Kabul, Jalalabad and Mazar e Sharif. Pakistani Customs has kept open clearance of containers destined for Afghanistan to date. Total transit cargo to Afghanistan via Pakistan is estimated at about 200,000 TEUs per year. This represents about 13% of Pakistan's total import volume. No additional restrictions on the clearance process are currently expected from the authorities there. At least the supply of the most important foreign goods is thus secured for the people in Afghanistan.

Hapag-Lloyd has neither its own branch office nor a corresponding agency in Afghanistan. Direct assistance by Hapag-Lloyd on the ground is therefore extremely difficult.

In Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd Senior Manager Claims P&I, Homaira Jafari-Kammann, views the current developments in her home country with major concern: "The current events are dramatic. Regardless of the terrible images reaching us, women's rights, the education sector and freedom of the press are precisely at stake," she warns. Jafari-Kammann was born in Afghanistan, but had left the country with her parents 35 years ago.

Homaira says: "For some years now, I have been supporting two organizations from Hamburg that work for the education of children and women in Afghanistan and have achieved a great deal over the past 20 years." And she adds, "Just going to school offered the children a perspective to steer their lives in a positive direction and not in a direction dominated by war and terror."

At the moment, there is no telling whether schooling for all children in Afghanistan will continue as it has in the past. But living conditions are expected to become worse, and not just for children. Many Afghan women fear for the freedoms they have gained and their right to self-determination."I fervently hope that children and women will continue to have access to education" Homaira says.