Overview
- EU officials met a five-person Taliban delegation in Brussels on Tuesday for closed-door technical talks focused on the return and readmission of Afghan nationals who lack a right to stay.
- Belgium issued five one-day visas restricted to Belgian territory after security checks so the delegation could attend the meeting, which the Commission invited at the request of about 20 member states.
- Commission spokespeople and EU ministers stressed the engagement is operational and not recognition of the Taliban, and they said the talks target people with criminal convictions or those deemed security threats.
- Human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned the meeting, arguing that returns to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan would risk persecution, torture, and threats to women and girls and could breach non-refoulement obligations.
- The talks follow a January EU technical visit to Kabul and recent EU migration rule changes that tighten returns; the meeting could make coordinated deportations more feasible and will be watched for any shift in how the bloc balances migration control with legal and humanitarian limits.