Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it has received the names of members of a Taliban administration delegation invited by the European Commission to travel to Brussels, and initial visa issuance checks have begun. Although the delegation has not yet submitted an official visa application, Belgian security agencies have started background evaluations of the individuals introduced.<\/p>\n
Maxime Pr\u00e9vot, Belgium’s Foreign Minister, stated that his country does not ordinarily issue visas to Taliban representatives; however, as the host of international institutions based in Brussels, Belgium is obligated to facilitate their access to these bodies. He noted that any final decision regarding visa issuance will be made after receiving an official application.<\/p>\n
The Brussels Times, citing a spokesperson from Belgium\u2019s Foreign Ministry, reported that security assessments of the individuals named are underway and that visa issuance is contingent upon completing legal procedures. Reports indicate that Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, is expected to lead the delegation.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Magnus Brunner, European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, defended the policy of dialogue with the Taliban administration, stating that there is “no option but to engage” to facilitate the return of Afghan refugees whose asylum requests have been rejected. He emphasized that these contacts occur at a technical level and do not imply recognition of the Taliban administration.<\/p>\n
The invitation has met critical reactions from several European politicians and institutions. Critics have warned that this move could be perceived as a retreat from the European Union’s commitments to human rights and recognition of Afghanistan\u2019s dire situation\u2014especially as the Taliban administration continues to face international pressure for its extensive restrictions on women’s rights and civil liberties.<\/p>\n
At the same time, approximately 20 out of the 27 European Union member states have jointly called for practical mechanisms to return Afghan refugees without legal residency, particularly those with criminal records and convictions, reflecting increased pressure to manage Afghan migration cases in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Belgium begins initial visa checks for a Taliban delegation invited to Brussels amid EU debates on engagement and refugee returns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}