Rights groups have criticised the European Commission's decision to host talks with Taliban officials in Brussels amid pressure by EU governments to accelerate the return of Afghan asylum seekers to their home country.
The technical meeting, which is believed to be scheduled for Tuesday, comes despite the EU refusing to formally recognise Afghanistan's Taliban government. The bloc has also been highly critical of their human rights record, particularly their treatment of women.
"Seeing that Taliban diplomats are accredited in order to speed up deportations is a slap in the face to those former allies who are being left behind without protection," Eva Beyer, media and advocacy officer for Kabul Luftbrucke, told The National.
Kabul Luftbrucke is a civil society initiative helps hundreds of Afghans promised asylum in Germany after the Taliban takeover in 2021. About 700 remain stuck in Afghanistan and Pakistan, fighting for admission before German courts.
Belgium has issued five visas to the Taliban to enable their delegation to attend an EU meeting on migration in Brussels, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said.
"These are visas with limited territorial validity and limited duration: only for Belgium ... and only for a single day," a representative for the ministry said in a statement. The exact date of the visit will not be announced for security reasons, they added.
European Commission spokesman Markus Lammert said the aim of the meeting is to discuss the return of Afghan citizens living illegally in Europe, particularly those deemed to represent a security threat.
Germany and Austria are leading those efforts, with German officials confirming last year they had held technical talks with the Taliban in Qatar while Austrian officials organised a meeting in Vienna.
About 20 EU states in October asked the commission to oversee technical talks on returns. The first such meeting took place in January in Afghanistan. The Brussels meeting is a follow-up to those talks.
Mr Lammert declined to give a time and location for the meeting owing to security concerns. "We pursue a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach," he said. He stressed that returns are a prerogative of EU states, not of the commission.
Mr Lammert said last month that the talks did not constitute a recognition of the Taliban government. "The EU maintains a presence on the ground to facilitate contacts, monitor the situation, assist EU member states and to continue to provide support for the benefit of Afghan people," he added.
