A group of Afghan Taliban officials arrived in Brussels on Tuesday. They came for a private meeting with European Union officials. These talks focused on one big topic: sending Afghan migrants back home to Afghanistan. This kind of meeting is very rare because no country in the EU officially recognizes the Taliban as a real government.
The Taliban government sent five people to represent them in Brussels. The group is led by Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. European Union officials did not publicly announced the details of other four members of the delegation due to security reasons.
Afghan people are one of the biggest nation seeking safety in Europe today. A lot of people left Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. This happened after US forces left the country. Since then, life in Afghanistan has become very difficult, especially for women and girls.
Almost all European countries want to send Afghan migrants back to their home country. This also applies to people whose asylum requests have already been rejected by European countries. Twenty out of 27 European countries signed a letter last October. The letter asked European leaders to take stronger action to deport Afghan migrants from Europe. The EU has ordered nearly 23,000 Afghans to return to their home country, but according to reports, only about 2% of them have returned until now.
Belgium hosted this meeting because the EU’s main offices sit in Brussels. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said clearly that Belgium does not support the Taliban. But Belgium had to give the Taliban members travel visas because it hosts EU institutions. The Taliban members got very limited papers. They could only stay in Belgium for 24 hours. They could not travel to any other European country.
Both sides chose a neutral location for the meeting on purpose. They wanted to make clear that the EU does not see the Taliban as a real government.
Human rights groups are very upset about this meeting. Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan researcher who works with Human Rights Watch. She said the EU cannot claim to support Afghan human rights while also sending people back to Taliban rule. She also said that the EU is damaging its own credibility by doing both things at the same time.
Eve Geddie, the Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, also spoke out. She said it is wrong to send people back to Afghanistan. She reminded people that even EU staff once had to leave Afghanistan quickly when the situation became dangerous.
Life in Afghanistan has gotten much worse since 2021. The Taliban banned girls from going to school after primary education. Women can only work in a limited number of jobs. They must also follow strict rules about how they dress when they go outside.
Afghanistan is currently dealing with a major crisis. About three million Afghans came back from Pakistan and Iran over the past year. This return made Afghanistan’s food shortage and money problems even worse.
The Taliban government hopes that these talks will help reduce its global isolation. It also aims to gain more international support and financial aid to manage the growing crisis inside the country. The situation in Afghanistan continues to put pressure on the government, making outside assistance even more important.
