EU faces fierce criticism over plans to host Taliban in Brussels
Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas.
It was the first time the EU had hosted the group since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Tuesday’s agenda included discussions on the possible resumption of consular services for Afghans in the EU, consular presence as well as “the need for trust-building measures”, spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement.
The visit was denounced by campaigners, who said that building ties with the Taliban flew in the face of the EU’s values. “The Taliban have erased women and girls from public life,” said the Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai – who was shot by Pakistan Taliban militants at the age of 15 – adding that she was “shaken and deeply disturbed” by the EU’s invitation.
The commission confirmed weeks ago that it had been in talks with the Taliban since January to discuss how to scale up the deportation of Afghan migrants.
The willingness of EU officials to cooperate with the Taliban – who in 2024 banned women from speaking or showing their faces outside their home – contrasts sharply with the messaging of the European parliament, where MEPs have repeatedly backed resolutions condemning the regime, said the Socialist Workers’ party MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
“I’m appalled,” he said. “It’s absolutely an outrage and a total loss of faith and the credibility of the European Union that it can hold such a double standard.”
Two senior Taliban leaders are subject to arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court, which has accused them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls. The EU has imposed sanctions on several individuals associated with the regime.
In May, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the meeting with the Taliban had been coordinated with Sweden after 20 member states had called for concrete pathways to deport Afghans without legal residence permits or who are deemed a security risk. The talks would be focused on how to return those who “pose a security threat” to the EU, said the spokesperson.
The rationale was rejected by López Aguilar, who instead accused the EU of allowing the far right and its rhetoric around immigration to set the agenda. “We’re 450 million people all together. There’s no reason to panic when you talk about a certain number of migrants fleeing from despair or from a lack of opportunities. Let alone persecution, which is grounds for them to seek international protection,” he said. “Migration is not a threat, not even a crisis. It’s a constant fact of the history of mankind.”
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have sought asylum in Europe. Across the continent, the lives they have carved out have become increasingly precarious as the discourse on migration hardens, with many EU member states seemingly ready to overlook the risks of carrying out deportations to a country in the grip of a humanitarian and human rights crisis.
About 40% of the population in Afghanistan is affected by hunger, according to the International Rescue Committee. The situation of women in the country is particularly precarious as they wrestle with systemic barriers to education, employment and health care.
Lisa Owen, the organisation’s Afghanistan country director, said: “Deporting Afghans back to a country where almost half of the population cannot feed themselves is not a migration policy; it is a decision that could cost lives.”
The message was echoed in an open letter, in which 83 Afghan and international human rights groups expressed grave concerns about the EU’s intentions. “Afghanistan is currently one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman, and forced return would expose many to persecution, violence and severe deprivation of rights,” it noted.
While the EU has said that the meeting in no way constitutes a recognition of the Taliban, what is playing out is something far worse, said Shagofah Ghafori, of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies.
“What Brussels is offering instead is something more insidious: normalisation,” Ghafori wrote this month. “And normalisation doesn’t require a signed treaty. It happens incrementally, through granting visas, meeting rooms and the quiet replacement of principle with transaction.”
A report published by the UN last year found that many Afghans who were returned to the country, most of them by Pakistan and Iran, experienced arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill treatment at the hands of the authorities. The finding suggests that deportations to Afghanistan could trample on the EU’s obligation, under international law, to refrain from sending people back who are at risk of facing persecution or torture.
This risk was laid bare in a charter flight, coordinated with Qatar, that left Germany in August 2024 carrying 28 Afghan citizens, said Ghafori. “Once a plane lands, there’s no credible oversight and reports indicate that returnees were detained and interrogated, with at least one later killed,” she said. “If the EU proceeds with deportations, it would be doing so with full knowledge that many returnees will end up in torture cells or mass graves.”
Germany is believed to have deported more than 100 since August 2024, while Austria has also begun deportations.
While the European Commission has argued that cooperation with the Taliban is necessary to deport convicted criminals back to Afghanistan, Reshad Jalali, a senior policy analyst with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, said this could just be the starting point. “The real risk is that once deportation is normalised and resumed between the EU and the Taliban de facto authorities, this would create a path for a wider deportation of Afghans without criminal convictions.”
Earlier this year, an investigative report by the German broadcaster ZDF alleged that the deportations to Afghanistan, while prioritising those convicted of crime, had also targeted single Afghan men who had not broken any laws.
Jalali called on the EU to instead work with the international community to hold the Taliban accountable. “The priority from the EU should be protecting Afghans and defending international law, rather than creating pathways that risk legitimising one of the world’s most abusive regimes.”
The deportations to Afghanistan were not only a humanitarian failure but also a strategic mistake, Hannah Neumann, a German Green MEP, said on social media. “If Europe returns young Afghan men into poverty and hopelessness, many will end up dependent on the only structures still offering shelter and food: Taliban networks and madrassas.”
Every return was a potential boon to the Taliban, she said. “This is how authoritarian systems hold power. Not only through violence, but through dependency, social control and enforced loyalty,” she said. “By deporting people into desperation, we are not weakening the Taliban. We risk strengthening the very structures that keep them in power.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
The European Union met with a Taliban delegation in Brussels to discuss deportations of Afghan migrants and resumption of consular services—the first official hosting of the group since the Taliban's 2021 return to power. The move has prompted substantial criticism from rights organisations, EU parliamentarians, and international figures, who argue it risks normalising a regime that has severely restricted women's freedoms and counts among its leadership individuals subject to International Criminal Court arrest warrants for crimes against humanity. The EU's stated rationale centres on managing migration flows and deporting individuals deemed security risks. Critics counter that Afghanistan remains in acute humanitarian crisis, with approximately 40% of the population facing food insecurity and women experiencing systematic exclusion from education, employment and public life. Human rights groups warn that deportations expose returnees to documented risks including arbitrary detention, torture and death, potentially violating EU obligations under international law. Some analysts contend the approach may paradoxically strengthen Taliban control by returning vulnerable populations into conditions of desperation and dependency. The deportations have already begun, with Germany and Austria among nations returning Afghan citizens since mid-2024.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas.
It was the first time the EU had hosted the group since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Tuesday’s agenda included discussions on the possible resumption of consular services for Afghans in the EU, consular presence as well as “the need for trust-building measures”, spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement.
The visit was denounced by campaigners, who said that building ties with the Taliban flew in the face of the EU’s values. “The Taliban have erased women and girls from public life,” said the Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai – who was shot by Pakistan Taliban militants at the age of 15 – adding that she was “shaken and deeply disturbed” by the EU’s invitation.
The commission confirmed weeks ago that it had been in talks with the Taliban since January to discuss how to scale up the deportation of Afghan migrants.
The willingness of EU officials to cooperate with the Taliban – who in 2024 banned women from speaking or showing their faces outside their home – contrasts sharply with the messaging of the European parliament, where MEPs have repeatedly backed resolutions condemning the regime, said the Socialist Workers’ party MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
“I’m appalled,” he said. “It’s absolutely an outrage and a total loss of faith and the credibility of the European Union that it can hold such a double standard.”
Two senior Taliban leaders are subject to arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court, which has accused them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls. The EU has imposed sanctions on several individuals associated with the regime.
In May, a spokesperson for the European Commission said the meeting with the Taliban had been coordinated with Sweden after 20 member states had called for concrete pathways to deport Afghans without legal residence permits or who are deemed a security risk. The talks would be focused on how to return those who “pose a security threat” to the EU, said the spokesperson.
The rationale was rejected by López Aguilar, who instead accused the EU of allowing the far right and its rhetoric around immigration to set the agenda. “We’re 450 million people all together. There’s no reason to panic when you talk about a certain number of migrants fleeing from despair or from a lack of opportunities. Let alone persecution, which is grounds for them to seek international protection,” he said. “Migration is not a threat, not even a crisis. It’s a constant fact of the history of mankind.”
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have sought asylum in Europe. Across the continent, the lives they have carved out have become increasingly precarious as the discourse on migration hardens, with many EU member states seemingly ready to overlook the risks of carrying out deportations to a country in the grip of a humanitarian and human rights crisis.
About 40% of the population in Afghanistan is affected by hunger, according to the International Rescue Committee. The situation of women in the country is particularly precarious as they wrestle with systemic barriers to education, employment and health care.
Lisa Owen, the organisation’s Afghanistan country director, said: “Deporting Afghans back to a country where almost half of the population cannot feed themselves is not a migration policy; it is a decision that could cost lives.”
The message was echoed in an open letter, in which 83 Afghan and international human rights groups expressed grave concerns about the EU’s intentions. “Afghanistan is currently one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman, and forced return would expose many to persecution, violence and severe deprivation of rights,” it noted.
While the EU has said that the meeting in no way constitutes a recognition of the Taliban, what is playing out is something far worse, said Shagofah Ghafori, of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies.
“What Brussels is offering instead is something more insidious: normalisation,” Ghafori wrote this month. “And normalisation doesn’t require a signed treaty. It happens incrementally, through granting visas, meeting rooms and the quiet replacement of principle with transaction.”
A report published by the UN last year found that many Afghans who were returned to the country, most of them by Pakistan and Iran, experienced arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill treatment at the hands of the authorities. The finding suggests that deportations to Afghanistan could trample on the EU’s obligation, under international law, to refrain from sending people back who are at risk of facing persecution or torture.
This risk was laid bare in a charter flight, coordinated with Qatar, that left Germany in August 2024 carrying 28 Afghan citizens, said Ghafori. “Once a plane lands, there’s no credible oversight and reports indicate that returnees were detained and interrogated, with at least one later killed,” she said. “If the EU proceeds with deportations, it would be doing so with full knowledge that many returnees will end up in torture cells or mass graves.”
Germany is believed to have deported more than 100 since August 2024, while Austria has also begun deportations.
While the European Commission has argued that cooperation with the Taliban is necessary to deport convicted criminals back to Afghanistan, Reshad Jalali, a senior policy analyst with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, said this could just be the starting point. “The real risk is that once deportation is normalised and resumed between the EU and the Taliban de facto authorities, this would create a path for a wider deportation of Afghans without criminal convictions.”
Earlier this year, an investigative report by the German broadcaster ZDF alleged that the deportations to Afghanistan, while prioritising those convicted of crime, had also targeted single Afghan men who had not broken any laws.
Jalali called on the EU to instead work with the international community to hold the Taliban accountable. “The priority from the EU should be protecting Afghans and defending international law, rather than creating pathways that risk legitimising one of the world’s most abusive regimes.”
The deportations to Afghanistan were not only a humanitarian failure but also a strategic mistake, Hannah Neumann, a German Green MEP, said on social media. “If Europe returns young Afghan men into poverty and hopelessness, many will end up dependent on the only structures still offering shelter and food: Taliban networks and madrassas.”
Every return was a potential boon to the Taliban, she said. “This is how authoritarian systems hold power. Not only through violence, but through dependency, social control and enforced loyalty,” she said. “By deporting people into desperation, we are not weakening the Taliban. We risk strengthening the very structures that keep them in power.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
The EU hosted a Taliban delegation in Brussels for discussions on deportations and consular services in May 2024, the first time since the Taliban's 2021 return to power. A Taliban spokesperson confirmed the visit and stated the agenda included discussions on resumption of consular services and trust-building measures. The Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas to the Taliban delegation. The EU Commission began talks with the Taliban in January 2024 regarding deportations of Afghan migrants. Twenty EU member states called for concrete pathways to deport Afghans without legal residence permits or deemed security risks. The Taliban banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and in 2024 banned women from speaking or showing their faces outside their home. Two senior Taliban leaders are subject to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity related to persecution of women and girls. The EU has imposed sanctions on several individuals associated with the Taliban regime. Approximately 40% of Afghanistan's population is affected by hunger according to the International Rescue Committee. A UN report found that Afghans returned to the country experienced arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill treatment. Germany deported more than 100 Afghan citizens since August 2024; Austria has also begun deportations. A German broadcaster's investigative report alleged deportations prioritising criminals also targeted single Afghan men without criminal convictions. The EU hosting the Taliban delegation risks normalising a regime with severe human rights violations. The EU's approach represents a loss of credibility and a double standard compared to European Parliament resolutions condemning the regime. Deportations to Afghanistan constitute a humanitarian failure and violate EU obligations under international law. The EU is allowing far-right immigration rhetoric to set policy agenda rather than upholding EU values. Deportations risk strengthening Taliban power structures by returning vulnerable populations into desperation and dependency. The meeting constitutes insidious normalisation through incremental steps rather than formal recognition.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
- The EU hosted a Taliban delegation in Brussels for talks on deportations and consular services, the first such meeting since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
- Rights campaigners, MEPs, and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai have criticised the meeting as normalising a regime that has systematically restricted women's rights and includes leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
- The EU is pursuing cooperation with Taliban authorities to facilitate deportations of Afghan migrants, despite concerns that returns to Afghanistan expose people to torture, arbitrary detention, and severe humanitarian deprivation.
- Afghanistan faces a severe humanitarian crisis with 40% of the population affected by hunger; women face systemic barriers to education, employment and healthcare.
- Critics argue deportations risk strengthening Taliban control through dependency and desperation, while potentially violating international law prohibiting returns to persecution.