EU to hold migration meeting with Taliban officials in Brussels

The meeting is expected to focus on the deportation of Afghan nationals who do not have a right to stay in Europe.Belgium has issued five visas to a Taliban delegation to attend a European Union meeting on migration in Brussels and discuss the deportation of Afghan asylum seekers from European nations.The meeting, expected to take place on Tuesday, will be the first time the EU has hosted the group since it returned to power in Afghanistan almost five years ago.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Will the new EU migration rules work?list 2 of 3Greta Thunberg joins Brussels protest against Israellist 3 of 3Israel slams EU’s Kallas for ‘apartheid’ comment: Are ties unravelling?end of listA spokesperson from the Belgian Foreign Ministry told reporters that the five visas were granted on Monday after a security assessment and that they are valid for Belgium for one day only.The European Commission said it has invited the Taliban officials for discussions on irregular migration from Afghanistan to the 27-member bloc, and to also discuss the deportation of Afghan people in the EU who have had their asylum applications rejected.The EU has not identified which Taliban representatives were invited to the meeting. Several senior Taliban leaders are also under EU sanctions.“Member States are looking into ways to return persons who have committed serious crimes and who are possibly a security threat. So this is the initiative that the Commission is now following up on,” Commission spokesman Markus Lammert told the EU’s daily news briefing on Monday.According to a letter seen by the Reuters news agency and addressed to Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a Taliban-foreign-ministry" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="150999" data-entity-type="organization">Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman, the meeting will focus on “the return and readmission of Afghan nationals without a right to stay in the European Union”.The Commission, however, emphasised that this meeting does not mean Brussels is formally recognising the Taliban.Since returning to power in August 2021, 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. European governments also shut their embassies in Kabul when the Taliban authorities returned to power.