Paris, Brussels, 23 June 2026. After visas were reportedly issued last week despite widespread civil society objections, a Taliban delegation is expected to arrive in Brussels this week for talks with EU officials. The discussions are reported to focus on cooperation on migration and the possible return of Afghan nationals whose asylum claims have been rejected in EU Member States.
FIDH warns that efforts to establish migration cooperation with Taliban representatives risk contributing to the consolidation and normalisation of an illegitimate authority that has systematically dismantled fundamental rights and freedoms since illegally taking power in August 2021. Since then, women and girls have been almost entirely excluded from public life, while independent journalists, human rights defenders, and former public officials have faced intimidation, harassment, attacks, arbitrary detention, and other serious human rights violations.
"Inviting the Taliban for talks on EU soil provides a form of political legitimacy to an undemocratic regime that is responsible for gender-based persecution and other grave human rights violations under international law”, said Alexis Deswaef, FIDH President. “By engaging in such discussions, the EU is crossing its own red lines for engagement with the Taliban, and compromising its own commitments to respecting human rights and the rule of law".
At a time when international efforts are increasingly focused on ensuring accountability for grave human rights violations, pursuing migration arrangements with the Taliban risks undermining those efforts and contradicting the EU’s own conditions for engagement, which place respect for human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, at the centre of relations with the Taliban. Such discussions also risk running counter to the principles enshrined in Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union, which require EU external action to be guided by human rights, the rule of law and respect for international law.
The visit is particularly alarming given that senior Taliban leaders are currently the subject of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds. By hosting Taliban representatives while considering migration arrangements, the EU and its member states risk sending a dangerous signal that accountability for grave human rights violations can be subordinated to short-term political objectives.
FIDH reiterates that Afghanistan is not a safe country for returns and calls on EU institutions and its member states to respect the principle of non-refoulement fully. Under international human rights law, no person should be returned to a country where they face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious human rights violations.
Any arrangements aimed at involuntary returns of Afghans to Afghanistan would expose the EU and its Member States to the risk of violating their obligations under international refugee and human rights law. Such cooperation would also risk contributing, directly or indirectly, to the maintenance of a system of widespread and systematic oppression.
Rather than pursuing migration cooperation and return arrangements with the Taliban, European policymakers should prioritise meaningful consultation with Afghan civil society, human rights defenders, and victims’ groups, and support ongoing international efforts to ensure justice and accountability for serious human rights violations.
FIDH recalls that United Nations experts have consistently stressed that engagement with the Taliban must be conditional on their respect of human rights and should not contribute to the normalisation or consolidation of a system of institutionalised gender persecution. Under no circumstances should migration policies come at the expense of the rights, dignity, and protection owed to the Afghan people.
On 16 June 2026, FIDH submitted a criminal complaint to the Belgian Federal Prosecutor concerning the planned visit of the Taliban delegation. At a time when senior Taliban leaders are the subject of arrest warrants issued by the ICC, European authorities cannot ignore credible allegations of serious international crimes. Any individual suspected of responsibility for such crimes who enters European territory should be met not with political engagement, but with judicial scrutiny.
Despite formally denying its support to the visit, the Belgian government issued five visas to the Taliban in order to meet with EU counterparts in Brussels citing, as justification, the obligation to cooperate with the European institutions as the host country. However, Belgium appears to be among the member states who have supported the European Commission’s proposal. Civil society in Belgium - including FIDH and its member organisation, the Belgian League of Human Rights - has strongly condemned the move and urged the Belgian government to refrain from allowing this visit.