The European Commission confirmed this Tuesday that it has sent an official letter to the Taliban regime to hold a meeting "at a technical level" in Brussels with the aim of advancing talks on the expulsion of Afghan migrants who have arrived irregularly in the European Union and are considered a security threat.
"The Council pointed out the obligation to maintain operational cooperation with the 'de facto' authorities in Afghanistan. This does not constitute recognition of the regime in any way," concluded the community spokesperson for migration, Markus Lammert, confirming the sending of the invitation letter and specifying that the dates and conditions of the meeting are yet to be finalized.
With this, the Community Executive considers the contacts and efforts to organize a meeting in Brussels to be a done deal, which, although it would be maintained on a technical level, would imply the first official visit of representatives of the Afghan 'de facto' authorities, after a first exchange of this type held last January in Afghanistan between delegations from Brussels and Kabul.
The letter has been sent by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission (DG HOME) together with the Ministry of Migration of Sweden. However, the community services emphasize that Brussels acts as a coordinator of an initiative promoted by about twenty European countries -- among which Spain is not included -- which in October called for speeding up returns to Afghanistan.
Lammert has stressed that these types of technical contacts "are nothing new" and that the European Union maintains an operational presence in Afghanistan with the objective of "facilitating contacts, monitoring the situation, assisting European member states and continuing to provide support" to the Afghan population.
The spokesperson, who has avoided specifying which Taliban leaders the invitation is addressed to or who will bear the travel expenses, has emphasized that the competence to carry out the expulsions of people arriving in the Community territory falls to the Member States, which must analyze each case individually, and not to the European Commission.
In any case, he has highlighted that the returns contemplated for now are limited to people who "pose a threat to security" in the European Union and that any deportation must respect European and international law, as well as Human Rights obligations.
Twenty countries demand to accelerate deportations
The origin of this initiative is situated in October of last year, when around twenty European countries, with Germany and Belgium at the forefront, asked the European Union to accelerate the deportation procedures of Afghan nationals without residence permits, despite the warnings from the United Nations about the serious risk they face upon their return under the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
On that occasion, in a letter addressed to the Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner, the signatory states -- among which Spain is also not included -- urged the Commission to adopt "concrete measures to facilitate the voluntary and forced return of Afghan citizens who do not have the legal right to reside in the EU and, in particular, of those who represent a threat to public order".
"Countries from north to south, from east to west, face the same obstacle: we cannot deport illegal or criminal Afghans, not even if they have been convicted," reads the letter signed last autumn by Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, and Norway.