Brussels hosts Taliban delegation to discuss return of Afghan refugees, drawing human rights condemnation

Brussels on Tuesday hosted a five-member delegation from the Taliban for talks aimed at discussing the potential return and deportation of Afghan nationals from European countries. The delegation, which Afghan Taliban foreign ministry sources confirmed to Radio Azadi, was led by Qahar Balkhi. Belgian authorities issued one-day visas for the five representatives but restricted their travel so they could not move to other parts of the Schengen area.

Belgian officials said the visit was arranged to enable talks on migration and returns, and Brussels and other EU institutions insisted that facilitating such discussions does not amount to formal recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. According to the report, the Taliban representatives travelled from Turkey and apparently obtained visas there before entering Belgium.

The visit has prompted immediate criticism from human rights defenders, activists and international observers, who argue that engaging Taliban officials on migration matters risks legitimizing a de facto authority responsible for systematic rights abuses. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said in a statement: «اتحادیه اروپا مقامات طالبان را برای مذاکره در مورد توافق مهاجرت به بروکسل دعوت کرده است - و من از این بابت عمیقاً متأثر و ناراحت هستم. اینها همان طالبانی هستند که دختران را از آموزش منع کرده و آنها را مجبور به ازدواج کرده‌اند. همان طالبانی که اوایل این ماه ده‌ها زن را در هرات به دلیل نحوه پوشششان دستگیر کردند.»

Human Rights Watch researcher Fereshteh Abbasi expressed similar concerns, highlighting a double standard in which European states condemn human rights abuses in Afghanistan while simultaneously engaging with Taliban officials in official settings. Abbasi said: «افغانستان با یکی از بدترین بحران‌های حقوق بشر در جهان روبرو است. این کشور به مکانی برای تبعیض و ظلم سیستماتیک علیه زنان و دختران تبدیل شده است. هرگونه توافق مهاجرتی با طالبان، دری را به روی مسیری خطرناک برای بازگشت اجباری و اخراج افغان‌ها به کشوری که از قبل ناامن است، باز می‌کند.»

Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, also urged EU states not to return Afghan asylum seekers. On his X account he wrote: «شکنجه و بدرفتاری یک خطر جدی در افغانستان است و تضمین‌های داده شده توسط وزارت امور خارجه طالبان این خطر را برطرف نمی‌کند. من از کشورهای عضو اتحادیه اروپا می‌خواهم که فرستادن افغان‌ها به خطر را متوقف کنند.» Amnesty International’s Europe office called any returns to Afghanistan “shameful,” warning that deportations would expose people to the risks of harassment, disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture and reprisals.

Officials in Brussels have sought to limit the optics of the meetings as normalization, stressing that the EU facilitated the dialogue and that any decisions about deportations remain the sovereign prerogatives of individual member states. The EU said that only individuals judged to be criminals or those who do not meet refugee criteria would be subject to removal. Nevertheless, critics say the arrangements fail to address the absence of independent safeguards on the ground in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s history of persecuting women, ethnic and religious minorities, journalists and perceived opponents.

Questions have also been raised about what the Taliban might be seeking in return for any cooperation on returns. Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told state broadcaster NDR that Berlin had spoken with Taliban representatives in Istanbul and intended to deport Afghan asylum-seekers judged to be criminals, and that it wanted to increase the number of deportation flights. NDR reported that, according to its investigations, Taliban officials had asked Germany to accept more Taliban representatives in exchange for increased repatriation flights. Germany has formally accepted two Taliban diplomats to its territory, and reports say efforts to admit up to six more are underway.

The Brussels visit is likely to fuel further debate among EU member states, rights groups and Afghan diaspora communities over the ethics, legality and safety of returning Afghans to Taliban-controlled territory. Human rights organizations are calling for a halt to removals until independent monitoring and guarantees can be credibly established, while governments face domestic political pressure to manage migration flows. For rights advocates, the core concern remains that talks with the Taliban on migration should not become a mechanism for outsourcing asylum decisions to an authority accused of grave rights violations and for which few real protections for returnees exist.