Taliban to Address the European Migration Issue

Five years ago, European governments shut down their embassies in Kabul after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. However, in June 2026 something unbelievable happened: EU officials hosted an official Taliban delegation in Brussels, led by Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi.

What did they discuss? And why did Europe suddenly turn and face an odious Afghan movement so recently considered a political outcast? This matter was examined in detail by Shairee Malhotra, deputy director of the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), and Maiwand Safi, a research intern of the same Program.

The visit by the Afghan delegation was dedicated to migration and the repatriation of Afghan nationals.

The negotiations were held amid growing pressure within the EU to accelerate the return of rejected asylum seekers, or those deemed a possible security threat on account of criminal offences committed in host countries.

While the European Commission stressed that the talks did not amount to formal recognition of the Taliban, they represented an important diplomatic achievement for the regime.

For Kabul, the visit’s significance went far beyond migration issues, for it was not the Taliban but the EU itself that initiated contact. Discussions regarding the Taliban’s diplomatic presence in Europe, including consular representation, have already begun. Kabul has maintained that the visit sought to advance broader diplomatic engagement and cooperation with the EU. Thus, for the Taliban, the visit was an opportunity to demonstrate that even in the absence of formal recognition, international engagement with Afghanistan persists, and Kabul remains a party to the dialogue.

According to EU data, member states received approximately one million asylum applications from Afghans between 2013 and 2024, with roughly half approved. As European governments aim to enhance migration controls and accelerate the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, engagement with the authorities in Kabul has become increasingly difficult to avoid. Put differently, they have actually recognized that migration can no longer be managed without cooperation with the Taliban.

EU officials have consistently reiterated that the dialogue is purely technical in nature and does not amount to formal recognition of the Taliban.

Yet this line of reasoning remains controversial. Hannah Neumann, a Member of the European Parliament, argues that the talks symbolize a political normalization of relations with the Taliban without securing any accountability in return. The very fact of granting visas and negotiating deals with the Taliban points to a pattern of incremental de facto recognition.

Negotiating with the Taliban remains politically contentious within Europe. Human rights organizations have urged the EU not to conclude migration arrangements that could be seen as legitimizing the current government in Kabul.

The Taliban’s Brussels visit should be understood less as a diplomatic breakthrough and more as evidence of Europe’s growing recognition of an evident fact: that practical challenges – migration management, consular affairs, and humanitarian coordination – cannot be addressed without engaging the authorities in Kabul.

Yet no one is going to whitewash the Taliban in Europe for now. The organization is still considered an extremist one, and terrorist in some countries.

However, the West’s famous formula, ‘He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch’, often used to justify engagement with very dubious political forces, is still there as well. So European bureaucrats have to sit down and negotiate with those whom they considered demons quite recently. For these ex-demons are now instrumental to the solution of very serious problems.

Original publication: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/europe-and-the-taliban-from-isolation-to-engagement