The European Union is set to hold talks with a Taliban delegation in Brussels on Tuesday focused on returning failed Afghan asylum seekers to Afghanistan. Belgium issues one-day visas to the delegation to enable the meeting, despite criticism from human rights groups. The EU does not officially recognize the Taliban administration, but the European Commission invites Taliban representatives for discussions as part of a wider effort to increase deportations of people who have exhausted asylum procedures. Deutsche Welle describes the meeting as among the EU’s highest-level contacts with the Taliban since 2021, indicating its significance within the bloc’s engagement framework. France 24 and RFI both report that the talks are taking place amid ongoing concerns from rights organizations, which argue the approach conflicts with European values and could affect protections for affected individuals. While the talks aim at facilitating returns, the planned discussions reflect the EU’s parallel objectives of managing migration flows and engaging with relevant actors in Afghanistan to operationalize return processes.