Welcome, Taliban

Today (23 June), the capital of Europe welcomed a delegation from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a regime not recognised by the European Union, led by the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi.

While we await further details of the meetings held between Taliban representatives and the European Commission officials who invited them, it seems clear that the reason for this unexpected “strategy of engagement” lies in the new direction of EU migration policy, which aims to facilitate the return of asylum seekers even to countries that are not exactly paragons of respect for human rights. 

Thus, after fighting them for twenty years, right up to the disastrous Doha Agreements of 2021—which sealed their victory over the entire international coalition that had sought to build a “different” Afghanistan and led to the return of their obscurantist regime—a process has begun that is likely to lead, to the eventual, return of the Afghan refugees—tens of thousands of whom had sought to escape their rule—in the hope of finding better living conditions elsewhere. For example, without women being forced to wear the burqa or being barred from attending school. 

It appears that only five “visas” were granted, all of which were time-limited and valid only for Belgium, and that the meeting between the Taliban and the European Union took place in a hotel rather than at the Berlaymont Building or any other EU building, according to the Belgian Foreign Minister, Maxime Prevot. However, this does not detract from the utterly exceptional nature of the visit, which Amnesty International has described as “unacceptable”. If one can “negotiate” with the Taliban, one can negotiate with all the “scoundrels” in the world, without exception. 

It would be interesting to know what leaders such as Emmanuel Macron or Pedro Sánchez think of this, given that, just a few days ago, they were up in arms about the recent return regulation—which zealous EU officials probably intended to foreshadow through their talks with the Taliban, all of which, we assume, were strictly male-only. 

It would be particularly interesting to understand just how far the European Union intends to go in its policy of negotiating with countries of origin or transit to facilitate repatriation and to expand the list of “safe countries” at will. 

According to European legislation (Directive 2013/32/EU) and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, a country is classified as such if: it guarantees respect for human rights for the entire population and throughout its territory; it does not engage in discrimination, persecution or inhuman and degrading treatment; and it is not subject to internal or international armed conflicts that endanger civilians. 

The European Parliament recently approved a very broad list of safe countries. Looking ahead, will Afghanistan also be included on this list?