The Taliban land in Brussels surrounded by secrecy

BrusselsThe Taliban arrived in Brussels this Tuesday to discuss the deportation of immigrants to Afghanistan. This is the only thing the European Commission has confirmed, which has not wanted to reveal with whom, when, and where they met. Absolute secrecy reigns among the community authorities.

The European Union maintains several organizations and personalities of the Afghanistan regime on its blacklist of sanctions who have committed all sorts of crimes, especially against women. In fact, the community bloc does not recognize the Taliban authorities. However, the obsession of European leaders to accelerate and increase the number of deportations of immigrants living illegally within the EU has led Brussels to maintain contact with the Islamist extremists.

The spokesperson for Home Affairs of the European Commission, Markus Lammert, explained at a press conference that the meeting of community authorities this Tuesday with the Taliban is the second to take place, although it is the first to be held in Brussels. The news agency Reuters revealed this, explaining that Belgium has accepted especially restrictive visas — for only one day and not valid in any other member state of the European Union — for the representatives of the Afghan regime.

Despite this, Lammert has tried to downplay the importance of the meeting and repeated that it is a "technical" meeting to coordinate a possible deportation to Afghanistan of immigrants who are in the EU. With this expression, the European Commission wants to avoid the European Union's meeting being interpreted as a diplomatic gesture of legitimization or recognition by the community bloc of the Islamist extremists. The meeting, however, has already caused a stir in the community institutions, and has received criticism from non-profit organizations and from the UN itself.

Although Lammert has avoided clarifying exactly which personalities have sat at the table, he has stated that they are senior officials from different general secretariats of the European Commission and, therefore, that none hold a political office or diplomatic representation. Be that as it may, the mere fact of speaking with the Taliban to coordinate the return of immigrants to Afghanistan already implies that Brussels admits that they have de facto control of Afghan territory, as the same community spokesperson has accepted at a press conference. Furthermore, some international media point out that the person who led the meeting was the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, who is precisely responsible for hindering the entry of foreign journalists into Afghanistan and for modulating the message broadcast about the regime.

A request from the states

The European Commission completely shrugs off responsibility for the meeting and assures that it plays more of an intermediary role between member states and Afghanistan. In fact, the community spokesperson recalled that up to twenty European partners —including Germany, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland— requested by letter that the community executive facilitate these contacts in order to increase the number of deportations of newcomers to the EU to Afghanistan. Spain, which has also opposed the initiative that aims to accelerate the return of immigrants, did not sign the letter addressed to Brussels.

The European Commission also avoids answering what the European Union is willing to offer in exchange for the Taliban accepting these returns, nor does it say how many immigrants are expected to be deported. The German newspaper Bild, however, reported last weekend that the intention is for about three charter flights to be chartered each month to Afghanistan. This, however, will depend on the state governments and not on Brussels, as Lammert assured.

In fact, Germany has already been negotiating on its own with the Taliban for some time, and in the last two years it has already carried out two repatriation flights with about a hundred people. Last October, the Taliban sent two representatives to the Afghan consulate in Bonn to take charge precisely of logistical issues. That is to say, since then, the Islamist extremists have had diplomatic presence in a member state of the European Union.

The meeting of European officials with the Taliban comes just days after the European Parliament and the Council of the EU —the body representing the member states— approved the directive to accelerate immigrant deportations. Among other things, it aims to strengthen and expand agreements with third countries —often in exchange for money— to send newcomers living irregularly in the community bloc there. According to the regulations, however, these countries must guarantee respect for international and humanitarian law, something that various NGOs and journalistic investigations have denounced that Afghanistan repeatedly violates.