Belgium has issued five one-day visas to a Taliban delegation invited to Brussels for talks on deporting Afghan migrants, marking the first time the European Union has hosted the group since it seized power in 2021.
The visas, granted late on Monday, were restricted to Belgian territory and valid for a single day. Two European officials said they applied only to Tuesday, June 23.
Belgium’s State Security Service approved the applications after concluding the five envoys posed no threat, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. The exact arrival date would not be disclosed for security reasons.
The meeting follows an invitation issued last month by the European Commission. According to a letter addressed to Taliban spokesman Abdul Qaher Balkhi, it would focus on the return of Afghans with no right to remain in the bloc.
“Member States are looking into ways to return persons who have committed serious crimes,” Commission spokesman Markus Lammert told reporters on Monday.
Brussels has insisted the talks were technical and did not amount to recognition of the Taliban regime. The Commission has courted the group for months, sending a senior home affairs official to Kabul in January.
The move has exposed divisions within Belgium itself. Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, of the centrist Les Engagés party, said he personally opposed the invitation.
But he said Belgium could not refuse invitations sent by the EU institutions it hosts without weakening Brussels’ standing as a diplomatic capital. Formal recognition of the Taliban remained “out of the question”, he told MPs.
Human rights groups have condemned the plan. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch warned that engaging the Taliban could endanger returnees, while several senior Taliban figures remain under EU sanctions.
“It is unconscionable that the EU would now try and deport people to Afghanistan,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have sought asylum in Europe since 2021, and they remain among the nationalities most likely to be granted protection. Returns have been limited by the absence of diplomatic ties with Kabul.
Since regaining power, the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond primary school and curtailed women’s freedom of movement and employment. Afghanistan is also facing a deep humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations estimating that roughly a third of the population is short of food.
