European Union to Invite Taliban Officials to Brussels for Migrant Talks

(Patria) - The European Commission stated on Monday to AFP that it plans to invite Taliban officials to Brussels in the near future for talks on the return of migrants to Afghanistan.

According to sources close to the matter, a letter will be sent "immediately" to Kabul to arrange a date for the meeting in the Belgian capital. The visit, coordinated by Sweden, would follow two trips by European officials to Afghanistan on the same issue.

Officials are now "working on a potential follow-up meeting at a technical level in Brussels with the de facto authorities in Afghanistan," said a spokesperson for the EU executive. No specific date for the visit has been set yet.

Letter from Twenty Countries

As part of a broader tightening of immigration policy, around twenty EU countries are exploring how to return migrants, particularly those with criminal convictions, to Afghanistan. In a letter from October, several of them urged the European Union to find diplomatic and practical ways to move this issue forward.

"In this context, a technical meeting was held in Kabul in January 2026," said the commission's spokesperson, adding that the EU is now working with Sweden on a "follow-up to these discussions" in Brussels.

Such visits raise a number of practical and ethical questions, not least because they involve cooperation with the Taliban authorities, whom the European Union does not formally recognize.

The Taliban have been largely isolated on the global stage since imposing their strict version of Islamic law upon returning to power in 2021. To enter Belgium, which hosts the institutions

of the European Union, Taliban officials would need to be granted exemptions, something Belgian authorities, in theory, appear willing to do.

Beyond practicalities, the European push for returns comes at a time when Afghanistan is facing a severe humanitarian crisis.

Since 2023, more than five million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, often forcibly. According to international organizations, most of them live in extreme hardship, without stable housing or employment.

Germany Leads the Charge

EU countries received around one million asylum applications filed by Afghans in 2013 and 2024. Approximately half of the applications were approved during that period. In 2025, Afghans continued to constitute the largest proportion of asylum seekers to the European Union.

But as public sentiment has soured on migration, Europe has sought to curb its welcome and has begun discussing how to send Afghan migrants home.

Some countries have moved forward, with Germany deporting over 100 Afghans with criminal convictions since 2024, via charter flights facilitated by Qatar.

Attitudes in the country have been hardened by a series of deadly attacks by Afghans in recent years, including a car ramming in Munich last year.

Austria followed suit, receiving a delegation of Taliban representatives in Vienna in mid-September.

Numerous other EU member states, including Belgium and Sweden, wish to follow suit, with enthusiastic support from those who oppose migration.

The campaign for the return of migrants has drawn sharp criticism from NGOs and the left.

"Deporting Afghans back to a country where nearly half the population cannot feed itself is not migration policy; it is a decision that could cost lives," says Lisa

Owen, the International Rescue Committee's director for Afghanistan. Other migrant rights groups fear that a visit to Brussels could allow Taliban officials to identify individuals wishing to return to Afghanistan, potentially endangering their fundamental rights.

Several diplomatic sources contacted by AFP claim the visit is primarily intended to address practical issues, such as issuing passports to people whose embassies in Europe do not recognize the Taliban authorities.

During their trips to Afghanistan, European officials have similarly explored Kabul airport's capacity and other technical details, according to sources close to the negotiations.