As the special envoy of the European Union (EU) to Afghanistan visited Kabul earlier this month, reports emerged that a Taliban delegation might be hosted in Brussels this summer.

An EU spokesperson said that while he cannot confirm whether the Taliban will be traveling to Brussels, talks between the EU and the Taliban have been going on at a "technical level" to coordinate deportations of Afghans at the request of many European nations. 

"These contacts took place following a joint letter by twenty interior and migration ministers," to the European Commission, as member states urged "enhanced EU support" to facilitate returns, said EU spokesperson Markus Lammert in response to a question from DW. 

A diplomatic source told AFP news agency that the plan is for a "technical" Taliban team to be invited "before summer." 

In October, nearly 20 European countries called on the Commission to engage with the Taliban and find a way to deport Afghan nationals who do not have legal residence, or are deemed to present a security risk. 

"The Swedish authorities are ready to invite the Taliban and the Belgium authorities are ready to grant a visa," so that a team of the Taliban can visit and discuss the modalities of readmitting Afghan nationals with the Commission, Tineke Strik, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament (MEP), told DW.

But even if the invitation hasn't yet been officially extended by the Commission and is still being mulled, some parliamentarians and activists say talking to the Taliban is bad enough. 

"We have always condemned the violent coup that the Taliban conducted,  and the complete repression of their own Afghan citizens," said Strik. "Now, if the EU starts cooperating with them, it takes away the very important power it has by not recognizing them, because talking with them means that you normalize them, and that they just become leaders of a country like any other leader."

The Taliban took over Afghanistan after the US-backed government collapsed in August 2021. The militant group has occupied all organs of the Afghan state, but no country except for Russia recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Among the degradation of civil liberties seen in the years since the takeover, the Taliban have essentially banned women and girls from public life, while removing their rights to education and employment. 

What is stopping countries from deporations?

In a Belgium-led initiative in October, a slew of European countries sought the European Commission's intervention to be able to deport Afghans. 

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and non-EU member Norway, asked the EU to find practical ways that allow them to deport Afghans with criminal records. 

They called on the European Commissioner for Asylum and Migration Magnus Brunner to work out a return mechanism with the Taliban. 

"Member states from north to south and west to east are facing the same obstacle: we cannot return illegal or criminal Afghan nationals, even after conviction," Belgian Minister for Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt said at the time. "This undermines public trust in asylum policy and poses risks to our security. It is time to act collectively." 

Saskia Bricmont, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing the Green Party, said that member states need the Commission to seek a readmission agreement with the Taliban to enable deportations. 

"It seems that the governments are determined to invite them [the Taliban] in Brussels to talks, because if our governments want to deport Afghan people to Afghanistan, to the Taliban, they need a so-called readmission agreement with the government in place," she said. "Such an agreement is usually between a government or the EU and a third country," and in this case risks exalting the Taliban to the status of a recognized government. 

However, some countries have carved an independent path and already started deportations without an EU mediation. Germany started deporting Afghans with a criminal background two years ago and has already sent back more than 100 Afghans.

An Amnesty International spokesperson told DW that European states such as Germany and Austria have been ramping up efforts to forcibly return Afghan nationals in the past year, "and there are ongoing negotiations and an upcoming technical mission by de facto Taliban authorities to Brussels foreseen in the coming weeks."  

Wiebke Judith, policy and advocacy officer for PRO ASYL, a German NGO working for the human rights of asylum-seekers, said Germany may have influenced other countries to demand deportations.

"We are quite worried, now seeing the same push at European level from other EU countries to deport Afghans. I am quite sure that Germany has been influential in that process, it has shown such cooperation with the Taliban is possible," she said. 

'Dire humanitarian crisis' in Taliban-run Afghanistan

Activists say engaging with the Taliban is doing irreparable damage to the EU's credibility and risks normalizing a militant group accused of torture, terrorism and denying girls the right to go to school after grade six and women to pursue most professions. 

Amnesty International condemned efforts to deport Afghans to a country "where repression of human rights is well documented, where violations particularly against women, girls and dissenting voices are widespread and systematic, and where a dire humanitarian crisis is continuing to deepen." 

Others said deportations violate the European convention for human rights and are illegal.

"We do not think such deportations are legal due to grave human rights abuses in Afghanistan... and violate Article 3 of the European Convention of human rights," Judith added. 

MEP Bricmont went further and drew out the consequences of deportations to Taliban-led Afghanistan: "Sending back those people who probably tried to flee the regime in the first place means that we, as Europeans, would be responsible to send them back, potentially to death." 

Bricmont and Strik, the Green parliamentarians, are now trying to apply reverse pressure on the Commission to discourage deportations and scuttle the prospects of an EU invitation to the Taliban. 

They have summoned Commissioner Brunner to appear in front of a civil liberties committee — responsible for protecting fundamental rights enshrined in EU treaties – to explain the EU's plans while warning the Commission and the member states against working with the Taliban.

And yet others acknowledge the EU's dilemma. On one hand, member states are relying upon the institution to find a mechanism to be able to deport Afghan nationals,  which also allows it to ideally install safeguards and protect those who might be deported. On the other, it must steer clear of de facto recognizing the Taliban.

"I think that the EU needs to act in a way where it doesn't legitimize this regime," said Evin Incir, a Swedish MEP from the Social Democratic Party. "At the same time, those who have the right to stay in Europe should be able to stay in Europe, and those who do not need to be able to return in a way that is possible." 

Edited by: Wesley Rahn