Dozens of Afghan and international rights and civil society groups have warned EU leaders against normalising ties with the Taliban and urged an immediate halt to deportations of Afghan asylum seekers.
In the letter, published on Thursday, 18 June, the organisations stressed that any cooperation with the Taliban would lead to the direct or indirect legitimisation of the group’s administration and would endanger the rights and security of Afghans.
The European Union has invited Taliban officials to travel to Brussels for talks on the deportation of Afghan asylum seekers, a move that has prompted a wave of criticism and strong reactions from European lawmakers and human rights organisations.
The letter was issued by 47 civil society and human rights organisations and addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission; António Costa, president of the European Council; Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief; and Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for internal affairs and migration.
The authors of the letter stressed that any cooperation with the Taliban on migration management and the return of asylum seekers raises serious human rights and protection concerns.
The signatories criticised the approach of some EU member states, including Germany, which describe their engagement with the Taliban as being at a “technical-level”, saying this approach conceals the harmful consequences of such contacts.
They stressed that this approach effectively legitimises the Taliban administration, whose officials are accused of widespread and systematic human rights violations and “crimes against humanity, including gender persecution”.
They described a recent initiative by 20 European countries to prioritise the return of undocumented Afghans as “dangerous precedent”, saying vague references to “security risks” fuel the labelling and criminalisation of Afghan asylum seekers and conflict with the principle of non-refoulement in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The letter said some European policymakers have based their actions on discriminatory narratives against Afghan men, an approach the organisations said fuels the spread of hate speech.
In another part of the letter, the civil society organisations objected to the handover of Afghan consulates in Germany and Norway to Taliban representatives and warned of the security risks this poses to Afghan asylum seekers.
According to the organisations, many Afghan asylum seekers, particularly former government employees and human rights defenders, fear that their sensitive information could be handed to the Taliban, putting their own lives and those of their families in Afghanistan at risk.
The letter said Afghan victims, particularly women and girls, have for years been denied meaningful participation in high-level talks on Afghanistan’s humanitarian and human rights crisis and the international community’s response.
The letter also said that facilitating travel by Taliban members to Europe by countries such as Belgium contradicts the European countries’ declared human rights commitments.
Earlier, Belgium’s Foreign Ministry told Afghanistan International, in response to calls for the Taliban’s invitation to Brussels to be withdrawn, that decisions on holding meetings and inviting delegations rest with European institutions.
Laurens Soenen, spokesperson for Belgium’s Foreign Ministry, said European institutions decide which meetings to hold and whom to invite.
Soenen stressed that some of these meetings may include representatives of institutions or regimes that Belgium does not recognise, but their presence in Brussels does not amount to recognition by Belgium or a direct invitation from the country.
The human rights groups stressed that Afghanistan remains unsafe and that its citizens face extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture, the systematic repression of women and girls, and a widespread humanitarian crisis. They called for an immediate halt to deportations of Afghan asylum seekers.
They urged the European Union to adhere to the position of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees against returning Afghans and to stop cooperation with the Taliban.
Afghanistan Watch, the Afghanistan Democracy and Development Organisation, the Afghan LGBT Organisation, Rawadari, AsyLex, France terre d’asile, Justice for Iran, Femena, the Civil Society and Human Rights Network, and the Afghan Refugee Experts Network in Europe are among the signatories of the letter.
Recently, Afghans and civil activists in 14 cities around the world voiced support for women’s rights in Afghanistan under the slogan “Education, Work and Freedom” and called for an end to repression and restrictions.
The protesters called on the international community to support Afghan women and demanded an end to the normalisation of relations with the Taliban.
The organisations’ letter said increasing deportations and restrictive policies have left many Afghans stranded in unsafe conditions in third countries. It added that measures in Europe, the United Kingdom and beyond, including visa bans and other travel restrictions, have had severe effects on women and girls, including blocking their access to education.
