The European Commission has invited Taliban officials for discussions in Brussels regarding irregular migration and increasing deportations. The meeting’s implications have caused controversy, despite an EU spokesperson promising the discussion will not result in any official recognition of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The EU Commissioner for Migration added the bloc must work with the de-facto rulers of Afghanistan for an effective system to be put in place.
Human Rights Concerns
According to Radio Free Europe, the meeting with a delegation from the Afghan Islamist regime led by Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi is likely scheduled for June 22 or 23. During the Brussels visit, they are expected to meet with senior officials from the European Commission, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and representatives of several member states, including Sweden.
Though a spokesperson reiterated that “engagement doesn’t mean recognition,” the preparations for talks have led to major objections, especially after the UN Security Council heard an official report of a lost generation emerging with 3.8 million Afghan girls out of school, 3.7 million children facing acute malnutrition, and women’s lives being increasingly restricted under Taliban rule.
“Deporting Afghans back to a country where almost half of the population cannot feed themselves is not a migration policy; it is a decision that could cost lives,” Lisa Owen, the country director of the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan, told InfoMigrants.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also highlighted that many groups would face reprisals upon return, including former government officials, journalists, and civil society representatives.
EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner, on the other hand, stressed that it is “important to talk to them at least to improve the situation for Europeans, but also for asylum applicants, for asylum-seekers.” Deportations have been increasingly difficult due to the lack of cooperation on travel documents and flights to Afghanistan.
“It’s no option not to talk to these people in order to improve the situation,” Brunner told journalists. But there are other implications, too.
“At best, Brussels is kowtowing to narrow political pressures; at worst, it’s normalizing a regime of gender apartheid and terror – and all in exchange for a short-term ‘fix’ on migration that comes at the expense of core values and long-term security,” Shagofah Ghafori from the Brussels-based independent think tank CEPS wrote on the organization’s website.
Current Life in Afghanistan
Despite the current plans to meet, the EU has condemned the regime in many forms. The EU’s External Action Service warned that the “systemic violations of women’s and girls’ rights” potentially “amount to gender persecution.” In 2023, Taliban Education Minister Habibullah Aghawas sanctioned for introducing the law that denies girls access to education above sixth grade.
“The situation for girls and women in Afghanistan is devastating,” Ahmad Mansoor Ramizy, who has aided the operation of underground schools since 2021 to help those too old to attend schools legally, told Euractiv. “Classes take place in secret locations. We now have around 30 such sites across eight provinces.”
The UN has classified the situation as gender apartheid, as women have not only been banned from higher education but also from becoming doctors, excluded from the job market, and restricted in movement by reserving certain public spaces for men. A law even allows men to enslave and punish women, exposing them to undocumented abuse.
Most recently, child marriage was legalized, while pro-democracy protests were shot at by the Morality Police. The closure or expulsion of independent news outlets has rendered free speech unfeasible.
“A bird is better protected than a woman,” Fawzia Koofi, the first woman deputy speaker of parliament in Afghanistan; a former peace negotiator with the Taliban; and president of the board of Women for Afghanistan, wrote in The Guardian. She highlighted that a husband injuring his wife by beating carries a 15-day sentence, while harming an animal may result in five months’ imprisonment.
“Engagement without accountability risks legitimizing oppression. It sends a dangerous message: that the international community’s promises to Afghan women can be abandoned for political convenience.”
Questioning the EU’s Credibility
Despite the pressure on the EU and its reluctance to deal with the Taliban, member states have increasingly pushed EU institutions to act as they are unable to return migrant with no right to stay to Afghanistan – many are especially worried about those with criminal convictions.
Some did not wait for EU approval; Germany has been flying Afghans back home since 2024, with the government of Qatar as an intermediary. Austria also sent a criminally convicted migrant back in 2025 and has reportedly hosted Taliban delegation last year.
Between 2013 and 2024, the EU received about a million asylum applications from Afghan nationals, according to official data obtained by InfoMigrants. Only around half of those were approved with others believed to be living with temporary or “tolerated” status, leaving Afghans to remain the largest single group of asylum seekers in the bloc.
