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BRUSSELS — A delegation from the Afghan Taliban is travelling to Brussels on Tuesday for closed-door talks with European Union staff, expected to focus on deportations, said a Taliban official.
Afghans make up one of the largest groups of migrants seeking asylum in the European Union, but a growing number of governments in the 27-nation bloc want to speed up and increase deportations for those whose claims are rejected or who commit crimes in their host countries.
Afghan authorities have imposed draconian restrictions on rights, particularly for women and girls, since the Taliban seized power in the country in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US-led forces.
Rights groups said Tuesday's meeting undercuts the EU's human rights obligations and could endanger people in Europe and Afghanistan.
“Any engagement with the Taliban needs to prioritise protecting human rights and accountability — not deporting people to danger there,” said Fereshta Abbasi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “EU countries are undermining their credibility by condemning Taliban abuses and pursuing accountability on one hand, while cooperating with the Taliban to forcibly return Afghans on the other.”
With not a single EU nation recognising the Taliban, the meeting in Brussels symbolises a small crack in the group's diplomatic isolation since seizing power five years ago.
The five-person delegation in Brussels from the Taliban — a government that none of 27 EU nations recognises — includes Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a New Zealand-born spokesperson for the Taliban's foreign ministry, said a Taliban official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said that while Belgium doesn't recognise the Taliban, it would comply with EU requests to grant the Taliban visas.
“Belgium cannot confer legitimacy on a regime accused of serious human rights violations,” he said in a statement referring to Belgium's hosting of the EU institutions. “Making a meeting possible in the framework of our host-state policy does not amount to recognition, does not amount to legitimacy, and does not constitute an invitation by the Belgian government.”
Members of the Taliban delegation were issued visas after security screening with limited territorial validity, giving them 24 hours in Belgium and no access to other countries in the Schengen border-free travel zone.
Since neither Belgium nor the EU officially recognises the Taliban government, the meeting will not take place on official buildings or sites belonging to either. The European Commission has declined repeated requests to provide additional information.
Drive to increase deportations
A spokesperson for the European Commission said Monday that the meeting is in response to pressure from a clear majority of the 27 EU nations – 20 of whom signed a letter in October calling for stronger migration policies including a ramping up of deportations.
“They had asked the Commission to coordinate such technical contacts on returns,” said spokesperson Markus Lammert. “Member states are looking into ways to return persons who have committed serious crimes and who are possibly a security threat.”
The first EU-Taliban meeting was held in Afghanistan in January when the Commission sent a mission to Kabul. It also maintains staff there.
The October letter was drafted in part by Belgian Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who said then that “we have sent a clear and powerful message to the European Commission: we can no longer afford a standstill. It is high time for a firm and joint approach, so that Europe can regain control over migration and security.”
Bossuyt said that across the EU, only 2 per cent of the 22,870 Afghans told to return had done so.
Another Commission spokesperson said the meeting “does not mean by any means recognition.”
Deteriorating situation in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been dealing with the return of about 3 million Afghans from Pakistan and Iran in the past year alone, all of whom have been pretty much been forcibly repatriated from those two countries, exacerbating a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, already reeling from food and economic crises including biting sanctions on the Islamic Emirate.
Afghan Taliban authorities have imposed draconian restrictions on women and girls, including bans on education beyond primary school and on working in all but very few professions, as well as strict regulations on what women are allowed to wear in public.
“The desperate scenes of people — including EU staff — fleeing Afghanistan are a recent memory. It is unconscionable that the EU would now try and deport people to Afghanistan, which has only become more dangerous in the meantime,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office.
Facing political pressure to toughen migration policies across the 27-nation bloc, the EU has recently passed deep reforms to its collective rules aiming to ramp up deportations -- including allowing the setting up of so-called “return hubs,” increased domestic surveillance capabilities, tighter border controls, and engagement with the Taliban government which it does not recognise because of human rights abuse allegations.
With Afghanistan facing food shortages and economic collapse, the Taliban government is in need of humanitarian aid and hopes to lessen its international economic and political isolation.