What happened: The European Union hosted five representatives of the Taliban in Brussels to discuss potential deportations of Afghan nationals. What's being discussed are methods of identifying Afghan nationals, as well as travel documents.
The Taliban delegation was not hosted within an EU institutional building and only granted a 24-hour visa for Belgium. EU representatives had previously flown to Kabul in January for a first set of talks.
Why this matters: Just two weeks after the EU's Migration and Asylum Pact entered into application and the Return Regulation (which enables EU member states to send asylum seekers to third-country detentions) was voted on, the Taliban talks are another escalation in the EU's quest to deport more asylum seekers.
Hosting them risks normalising a violent regime: the Taliban government, in power since 2021, has restricted women's participation in public life, capped girls education after the 6th grade, forcibly converted Shia minorities to Sunni Islam, detained journalists and dissidents, among many human rights violations.
The UN estimates that gender-based violence rose by 40% since the Taliban took over. Since 2021, 251 people were extrajudicially executed.
The talks do not mean that the EU officially recognises the Taliban government – in fact, it still actively sanctions some affiliated individuals. Two high-ranking Taliban leaders also face arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court. Back in May, the European Parliament condemned the repression under the Taliban.
In 2025, Afghan's fleeing the Taliban were the largest nationality of asylum seekers in the EU.
What's next: It's not just the EU. Germany has already started deportations of Afghan nationals to the country. According to a UN report, returnees expectedly faced arrests, torture and ill treatment. Austria started deporting too.
The EU is actually reacting to what multiple member states demanded: an EU-wide deportation mechanism to Afghanistan. Migration externalisation agreements with autocratic countries have already normalised Türkiye's government.