Taliban patrols yesterday completed the forced closure of foreign non-governmental aid offices in the Afghan capital, with more of the few remaining aid staff expelled.
UN agencies reacted to the closures of their offices with strong warnings that the move would bring suffering for the Afghan population.
"The UNHCR is very concerned that the withdrawal of international NGOs from Kabul will lead to a worsening of the humanitarian situation there, which may provoke a new exodus," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman, Ms Judith Kumin.
Aid workers still in the war-torn city said the French agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), was the latest casualty of the crackdown and expulsion order aimed at groups defying a Taliban relocation order.
At midday, MSF's three foreign staff members joined the exodus of expelled foreign aid workers, all of whom over the weekend chose to defy an order to shift to Kabul's dilapidated polytechnic compound.
Most of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) expelled are also vocal critics of the Taliban's strict policies including banning women from work and education and restricting female access to health care.
Nearly 20 aid agencies have had their offices closed including Care, Save the Children, Medecins du Monde, Solidarites, and Action against Hunger.
Most staff from the agencies say the ruling forcing them to move to a compound with no water or electricity - and pay the estimated million dollars to repair it - is little more than a veiled expulsion order. "We were told to reply to the order in writing on Sunday and on Monday morning they started to close us down," noted one aid worker.
"It doesn't appear they were interested in even reading our letters and in fact they couldn't wait to get rid of us."
At least 60 per cent of Kabul's war-weary population is dependent in some way on foreign aid, which pays for the operation of the city's water supply and most health care and runs food programmes.
The Taliban's planning minister, Mr Qari Din Mohammad - placed in charge of the operation - yesterday indicated no shift in the militia's position.
"Nobody can be an exception," Mr Mohammad said. "Anyone who wasn't shut down yesterday will be shut down today."
The minister said only one group, International Assistance Mission, a US-based Christian charity, had so far agreed to shift to the polytechnic.
Yesterday's continued exodus of foreign aid workers means that in just two weeks the number of expatriates in Kabul has fallen from over 200 to around 45.
Patrick Smyth adds from Brussels:
The European Commission has cut off funding for humanitarian relief in Kabul in protest at fundamentalist-imposed restrictions on women and on the work of non-governmental relief organisations.
The decision will lead to the freezing of all new contracts - some £3 million is expected to be affected - and will result in the departure of some 24 NGOs from the Afghan capital, 22 of them partially funded by the EU.
A spokesman for the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, said that the restrictions imposed by the Taliban meant that relief workers were not able to see how money was being spent on a new women's hospital, women having been ordered out of all the other hospitals. The restrictions on movement and dress also make the work of women relief workers impossible, he said.
An agreement on access had been "systematically violated by the Taliban", the spokesman insisted, also citing the closure of some 100 girls' schools.
The Taliban regard foreign aid workers as "polluting" to the moral atmosphere of the capital, and say they need to be carefully supervised.