EU to invite Taliban officials for migration talks in Brussels

The European Commission is getting prepared to invite Taliban officers to Brussels for technical talks on returning Afghan migrants from EU international locations.

The European Union is getting prepared to host Taliban officers in Brussels for talks targeted on the return of Afghan migrants, as several member states push for stricter deportation policies and renewed cooperation with Afghanistan’s de facto authorities.

Citing sources conscious of the subject, AFP reported that a letter will likely be sent “imminently” to Kabul to prepare a date for the meeting within the Belgian capital. The planned discussions, being coordinated with Sweden, would apply two old visits by European officers to Afghanistan on the identical subject.

Technical meeting below discussion

A spokesperson for the
EU government acknowledged officers are “engaged on a attainable apply-up meeting at technical level in Brussels with the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan”. No date has yet been mounted for the proposed plug to.

The discussions near as spherical 20 EU international locations stare systems to return migrants, specifically these with criminal convictions, to Afghanistan as section of a major wider crackdown on immigration. In an October letter, several international locations urged the EU to name diplomatic and functional solutions to shut the subject.

“On this context a technical meeting took enlighten in Kabul in January 2026,” the price spokesperson acknowledged, including that the EU and Sweden believe been now jointly working to “pursue these discussions” in Brussels.

Questions over engagement with Taliban

The planned plug to raises functional and ethical concerns as it entails engagement with Taliban authorities, who’re not formally recognised by the European Union. The Taliban believe remained largely remoted internationally since regaining vitality in 2021 and imposing a strict version of Islamic regulations.

For Taliban officers to hurry to Belgium, which hosts EU establishments, exemptions would must always be granted. Belgian authorities appear, in idea, willing to enable this.

The European push to amplify returns additionally comes as Afghanistan faces a deep humanitarian disaster. Since 2023, extra than five million Afghans believe returned from Iran and Pakistan, incessantly by force. Global organisations drawl most live in excessive hardship without stable housing or employment.

Germany among international locations pushing returns

Between 2013 and 2024, EU international locations purchased a couple of million asylum capabilities from Afghans, based on the bloc’s info company. Roughly half believe been licensed in some unspecified time in the future of that period.

Afghans soundless accounted for potentially the most arresting half of asylum applicants within the EU in 2025.
Alternatively, as attitudes in the direction of migration believe hardened in some unspecified time in the future of Europe, governments believe an increasing selection of discussed returning Afghan migrants to their dwelling country.

Germany has taken a main characteristic, deporting extra than 100 Afghans with criminal convictions since 2024 via structure flights organised with the motivate of Qatar. Public opinion in Germany has additionally been formed by several deadly attacks appealing Afghans in latest years, including a vehicle-ramming incident in Munich final one year.

Austria has additionally moved forward on the subject, web hosting a Taliban delegation in Vienna in mid-September. Belgium, Sweden and several other other EU member states are pondering identical steps, supported strongly by anti-migration voices.

The protection push has faced criticism from NGOs and left-fly political groups.
“Deporting Afghans aid to a country the keep nearly half of the inhabitants cannot feed themselves isn’t a migration protection; it is a decision that might also fee lives,” acknowledged Lisa Owen, the Global Rescue Committee’s country director for Afghanistan.

Some migrant rights groups believe additionally raised concerns that a Brussels plug to can also enable Taliban officers to name of us they wish returned to Afghanistan, potentially threatening their most significant rights.

Diplomatic sources contacted by AFP disputed these concerns, asserting the predominant unbiased of the talks is to handle functional issues, including the issuing of passports for Afghans whose embassies in Europe are usually not recognised by Taliban authorities. Sources shut to the discussions acknowledged European officers additionally examined Kabul airport’s facing potential and other technical preparations in some unspecified time in the future of their visits to Afghanistan, based on the news company.