‘A remarkable development’: How Western tourism is on the rise in this controversial nation
With centuries of history, ancient archaeological sites, Islamic art and untouched landscapes, Afghanistan is attracting tourists – despite the Taliban regime and the UK government’s “do not travel” warnings.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the country formed part of the overland “hippy trail” route across Asia and welcomed hundreds of thousands of Western tourists. But as its complicated modern history unfolded, the steady stream of travellers stopped.
The UK Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Afghanistan, highlighting its “volatile” security situation and an “ongoing and high threat of terrorist attacks”. But some adventurous tourists aren’t letting this stop them.
Joan Torres, founder of blog and adventure travel company Against The Compass, told Sky News that he has seen a “big increase in demand” for tours of Afghanistan. In 2023, he ran three trips to the country and for 2024, this number has doubled.
“Syria and Iraq used to be our big sellers but given the situation in the Middle East, Afghanistan might become our most sold-out destination soon,” he said.
Untamed Borders, which specialises in trips to “some of the world’s most interesting and inaccessible places”, has also seen a rise in interest. It has been helping travellers visit Afghanistan since 2008.
The company’s tours paused in August 2021 as the Taliban seized power and since resuming in September 2022, founder James Wilcox told Sky News “quite a number of tourists” have made bookings.
While Afghanistan’s recent history is one of war and turmoil, Mr Wilcox said people who book with his company aren’t visiting because it’s a “dangerous and edgy” destination.
“They want to experience somewhere that’s culturally different, with different food and architecture,” he said. “One of the things that appeals when you to go to Afghanistan, is you don’t see life through the prism of tourism. There’s something much more authentic about it.”
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Since the Taliban has been in control, the situation for Western tourists is that “generally we can visit places we couldn’t visit before and the overall security situation has generally improved”, Mr Wilcox added.
The mausoleum of Ali in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the north of the country. Pic: Untamed Borders
His comment comes after a local official in Ghazni province – around 148km south of the capital Kabul – claimed “in a remarkable development” the region has “become a favoured destination for international tourists”.
Since the beginning of the year, 293 visitors from various countries have explored the province’s “natural attractions and ancient sites”, added Mullah Hamidullah Nisar, the head of information and culture in Ghazni.
Attractions in the province include a fort complete with 1,000-year-old towers.
While the Taliban regime has a well-documented history of oppressing women – and previously banned them from a national park saying “sightseeing is not a must for women” – Western female tourists are allowed to visit, and Untamed Borders runs mixed-gender tours.
“One thing that women [travellers] can often do is spend time with women in homes,” Mr Wilcox said. “But there are other things that women are not allowed to do and certain places they’re not allowed to visit.
“On a good day as a female traveller, you get to see all the things the guys can see and on a bad day, you get ignored by everyone.”
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Afghan women have urged the world to help them
Getting into Afghanistan, and obtaining permission to do so, has never been straightforward. Under Taliban rule, just a handful of embassies around the world have been able to issue visas and at all but one, you can only apply in person.
Tourists also need specialist insurance as regular providers do not cover travel to countries on the Foreign Office’s red list. They can then fly to Kabul via another hub in Asia, such as Dubai, or cross a border on foot.
The Minaret of Jam, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the mid-western province of Ghor. Pic: Kyodo via AP Images
For those who do jump through the necessary hoops and are willing to take the risk, unique sights, history and cultural experiences await.
“We take people to Bamiyan, which 1,500 years ago was the route between India and China,” Mr Wilcox said. “It was very cosmopolitan with very different ideas and religions. It was at the heart of Asian trade.”
Tourists can also visit the famous minaret of Jam, the cities of Herat, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, and the site where two gigantic sixth-century Buddhas stood until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001.
In all the horrors of this war, the plight of thousands of civilians abducted by Russia is one of the worst, but is in danger of being overlooked.
Warning: This report contains details of torture and sexual abuse
Their fate is not mentioned for instance in Donald Trump’s peace plan currently being wrestled over, let alone any demands they are released by Russia.
But their plight is truly horrific. Ukraine has identified almost 16,000 names of people lost in a gulag of 180 prisons in Russian-held Ukraine and in Russia itself, as far away as Siberia.
It is a war crime to take civilians hostage during a conflict but that has not deterred Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Worse, there is abundant evidence they are being tortured, sexually abused and killed in custody.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Nobel Prize-winning Ukrainian human rights lawyer, said: “I interviewed hundreds of people who survived Russian captivity, men and women, mostly civilians, and they told me how they were beaten, raped, smashed into wooden boxes.
“Their fingers were cut, their nails were torn away, their nails were drilled. There were electrical shocks through their genitalia. One woman told me how her eye was dug out with a spoon.”
Dmytro Khilyuk has been detained by Russia since March 2022
When the Russians took territory north of Kyiv at the start of their illegal invasion, they came for the men, among them Dmytro Khilyuk.
Apart from a short letter sent from captivity a few months later, his elderly parents have not seen him since.
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Mr Khilyuk’s mother and father, Halyna and Vasyl, show photo of their son
‘I just can’t take it anymore’
“We’re old and we’re sick,” his mother Halyna, bedridden after a stroke, told us.
“We’ve been without our only child for four years now, not knowing anything, where he is, how he is.”
She wept as she told us of the agony of living with the uncertainty about their son.
“I just can’t take it anymore. Why is my child suffering like this? It’s been four years. All we get are endless talks, talks, and more talks. And nothing changes. I could die any day… and never see my child again.”
Mr Khilyuk’s mother, Halyna
Khilyuk has lost half his weight and most of his teeth
A year ago a fellow prisoner who had shared a cell with Mr Khilyuk was released. He said Mr Khilyuk had lost half his weight and most of his teeth.
Fellow journalist and friend of Mr Khilyuk, Stas Kozluk, told us he was worried about his state of mind.
“We just can’t imagine what can happen with the mind of a human being that’s captured and spends three years in that condition. To be honest, I don’t know how to help him. And that’s the most terrifying thing,” he said.
Russia releases no information
Ukrainian authorities can only piece together information about the abducted civilians. Mr Kozluk told us those who’ve been detained learn the phone numbers and names of relatives of others they are held with.
Those who are released pass on what information they can.
Russia releases no information about those civilians it is holding illegally, against the rules of war.
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‘The world doesn’t understand’
Thousands of innocent civilians are lost in a hellish archipelago of Russian jails notorious for their evil regime of abuse.
And the world, says Oleksandra Matviichuk, is in danger of forgetting about them.
“I think the world doesn’t understand, first, the cruelty and unhuman conditions in which Ukrainians are held in Russian captivity,” she says.
“Second, they don’t understand that Russia detained not just military, but civilians. And according to the Geneva Convention, they have to be released immediately without any exchanges, without any conditions.”
Diplomatic efforts to end this war grind on fitfully. But there has been very little pressure on Russia to end its illegal abduction of thousands of innocents.
The United States “doesn’t have high expectations” for negotiations in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, America’s top diplomat has admitted.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said he did not think there would be a “breakthrough” in discussions until Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet to discuss it directly.
Russia and Ukraine are preparing to hold their first direct peace talks in three years, but the negotiations will take place in the aftermath of Mr Putin declining Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s offer of an in-person meeting.
It came after Mr Putin proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine over the war “without any preconditions” after the “coalition of the willing” countries threatened Russia with fresh sanctions if it failed to take part in a 30-day ceasefire beginning on Monday. In response Mr Zelenskyy had called on Mr Putin to meet him in Istanbul.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with senior officials. PIc: Reuters
Ukraine war latest: Trump teases ‘destination unknown’
The Ukrainian president said he was sending a team headed by his defence minister, from the Turkish capital Ankara to Istanbul, to meet the Ukrainian delegation, though he said Moscow’s team did not include “anyone who actually makes decisions”.
Mr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of not taking efforts to end the conflict seriously by sending a low-level negotiating team he described as “a theatre prop”.
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who is heading Moscow’s delegation, said: “The task of these direct negotiations with Ukraine is to establish long-term peace sooner or later by eliminating the root causes of this conflict.”
He later said he expected Ukraine’s representatives to turn up for the beginning of discussions on Friday morning.
Marco Rubio. Pic: Reuters
Mr Rubio said he will meet Ukraine’s delegation on Friday, adding: “It’s my assessment that I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until the president [Mr Trump] and President Putin interact directly on this topic.”
The team sent by Russia “does not indicate a breakthrough”, he said, before going on to say: “I hope tomorrow the news says they’ve agreed a ceasefire. But it’s not my assessment.”
He was echoing remarks made by Mr Trump earlier in the day, when he said: “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.”
Asked if any plans were under way for a meeting between the US and Russian leaders, Mr Rubio said Mr Trump was going to make a decision once his trip to the Middle East finishes.
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Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides in the war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, along with more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the UN.
Russian forces are preparing for a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and Western military analysts have warned.
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Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Putin of “standing in the way of peace”, with the prime minister saying: “There was only one country that started this conflict – that was Russia. That was Putin. There’s only one country now standing in the way of peace – that is Russia, that is Putin.”
A top Iranian official has said the country is prepared to make a number of concessions related to its nuclear programme, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
It comes as Donald Trump, during his tour of the Middle East, urged Qatar to wield its influence over Iran to persuade it to give up its nuclear programme.
Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke to Sky News’ US partner NBC News.
Ali Shamkhani pictured in 2023.
Pic: Reuters
He said Tehran was willing to commit to never making nuclear weapons again, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which can be weaponised, agree to only enrich uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use and allow international inspectors to supervise the process.
This was in exchange for the prospect of the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on the country.
Asked if Iran would sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Mr Shamkhani told NBC: “Yes.”
His comments are the clearest public indication of what Iran hopes to get out of a deal and their willingness to do one.
“It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Mr Shamkhani added.
However, he expressed frustration at continued threats from the US president, describing them as “all barbed wire” and no olive branch.
Similarly, he warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might try to derail the deal.
Trump goes to the Middle East
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Trump’s second day in the Middle East
Elsewhere, on the second of three stops on his tour of the Middle East, Mr Trump appealed to Qatar for help in the process.
He urged the country to use its influence over Iran to persuade its leadership to reach a deal with the US and dial back its rapidly advancing nuclear programme.
Mr Trump made the comments during a state dinner.
He said: “I hope you can help me with the Iran situation.
“It’s a perilous situation, and we want to do the right thing.”
Donald Trump listens as Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (not pictured) speaks at a state dinner.
Pic: Reuters
Over the years, Qatar has played the role of intermediary between the US and Iran and its proxies – including talks with Hamas as its 19-month war with Israel grinds on.
This comes after Mr Trump told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week that he wants “to make a deal”.
However, he said that as part of any agreement, Iran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the Middle East.
A nuclear Iran
Mr Trump has always said Iran could not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
While Iran has always denied doing so, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium close to weapons-grade quality for nearly six bombs.
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Trump 100 breaks down the president and Iran
The US and Iran reached a nuclear deal in 2015, under Barack Obama, in which Iran agreed to drastically reduce its stockpile of uranium and limit enriching up to 3.67%.
But Mr Trump scrapped that deal in his first term.
Today, Iran enriches up to 60%, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Washington and Tehran have engaged in four rounds of talks since early April.
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