EU Holds First Brussels Talks With Taliban on Afghan Returns
The closed-door meeting focused on deportations, with EU officials saying 14,270 Afghans were ordered to leave in the bloc’s first nine months of 2025.
- On Tuesday, Taliban representatives met European Union officials in Brussels for the first time, discussing repatriation of failed asylum seekers in what Brussels described as "limited talks" with Afghanistan's "de facto authorities."
- Member states struggle to deport failed asylum seekers "who commit crimes or are deemed dangerous," with less than 30 percent of those ordered to leave actually returning to their country of origin.
- Co-Chaired by Sweden, the "technical level meeting" included representatives from 15 European Union member states, while Belgium issued Taliban delegates five one-day visas valid only for Belgian soil.
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai called the visit a "slap in the face," while Amnesty International activists alleged the European Union was "undermining their credibility" by engaging with the regime.
- Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi emphasized "the need for trust-building measures" and consular services, though critics argue the Taliban primarily seek international legitimacy rather than technical cooperation.
109 Articles
109 Articles
EU's Taliban talks crack the facade of a principled policy
The European Union’s decision to host a Taliban delegation in Brussels on June 23 marked a significant moment in the evolving relationship between Europe and Afghanistan’s de facto rulers. While European officials stressed that the talks were technical and did not imply diplomatic recognition, the meeting nevertheless represented the first EU-hosted engagement with Taliban representatives […] The post EU’s Taliban talks crack the facade of a pri…
The de facto Taliban government assured this Wednesday that its delegation returns to Afghanistan after having held “successful” meetings in Brussels to reactivate consular services in Europe, after the European Union (Europe) today denied any kind of political concession to the regime. “The delegation returns after having successfully held meetings on the resumption of comprehensive consular services for Afghans across Europe, confidence-buildi…
The Commissioner for Home Affairs and Immigration, Austrian Magnus Brunner, tried to justify the meeting held this Tuesday in Brussels by representatives of the Commission and of fifteen Member States with a delegation from the Afghan Taliban. At the end of the weekly meeting of the Community Executive, the head of the "strictly technical" meeting insisted that they were only seeking "operational solutions" that do not represent any official rec…
A delegation of the Afghan Taliban met in Brussels on Tuesday with officials of the European Union for the first time, an event that human rights organisations denounced as legitimising Islamists, but the EU defended it, claiming it represents a step towards facilitating the repatriation of asylum seekers whose applications were rejected, reports Reuters.
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