Belgium issues visas to Taliban delegation for EU meeting

Belgium has issued limited visas to a Taliban delegation to attend an EU meeting on migration in Brussels, focusing on deporting Afghan migrants from the European Union.

Belgium said on Monday it had issued five ​visas to a Taliban delegation to attend an EU meeting ​on migration in Brussels, for what would be ‌the ​first time the EU has hosted the group since the Islamists returned to power five years ago.

"These are visas with limited territorial validity and limited duration: only for Belgium ... and only for a ‌single day," a Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the exact date of the visit would not be communicated for security reasons. The meeting is expected to focus on ways to deport some Afghan migrants, despite warnings from human rights groups that such engagement could put Afghans ‌at risk and undermine core EU values.

According to a letter seen by Reuters and addressed to Abdul Qaher Balkhi, a Taliban foreign ‌ministry spokesman, it will focus on "the return and readmission of Afghan nationals without a right to stay in the European Union". The EU's executive, the European Commission, has said the meeting is technical and does not constitute recognition of Taliban rule.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have steadily curtailed rights, restricting women's freedom of movement, banning girls from education ⁠beyond primary ​school, and enforcing morality laws that ⁠limit free expression and access to employment. RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS ASK TO ABANDON PLAN

Rights organizations have asked the European Union to abandon its plans to talk with the Taliban. "Any engagement ⁠with the Taliban needs to prioritize protecting human rights and accountability — not deporting people to danger there," said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"The desperate ​scenes of people - including EU staff - fleeing Afghanistan are a recent memory. It is unconscionable that the EU would now try and ⁠deport people to Afghanistan, which has only become more dangerous in the meantime," said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office. The EU has not identified which Taliban ⁠representatives ​were invited to the meeting. Several senior Taliban leaders are under EU sanctions.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have sought asylum in Europe since 2021. EU law allows for deportations of people convicted of serious crimes or deemed security threats in certain cases, but returns to Afghanistan ⁠have been limited due to the lack of diplomatic relations.

Although Afghans are among the nationalities with the highest asylum recognition rates in the ⁠EU, overall acceptance has tightened as ⁠migration policies become more restrictive. Afghanistan is currently mired in a deep humanitarian crisis. According to the U.N. World Food Programme, more than 17 million Afghans - or one-third of the population - are "food insecure", while the country ‌is absorbing tens of ‌thousands of returnees from Iran and Pakistan.