The European Commission and MEPs held a closed-door meeting to discuss the Taliban. Magnus Brunner, the EU home affairs commissioner, was speaking at the meeting and appeared “completely lost” on the subject, said one EU source.
The little-known Irara NGO was the largest non-state recipient of Frontex funding last year, receiving some €39m in 2025. The NGO is headed by UK security veterans and operates in 36 countries, including Afghanistan.
EU commission travels to Afghanistan. Who, what, when?The European Commission apparently has no clue that one of its senior officials went to Afghanistan in January to meet with the Taliban, the latest indictment of an institution that continues to railroad accountability while proclaiming itself to be transparent.
The EU Commission insisted that the meeting primarily concerned returning Afghan nationals with a criminal history and who pose a security threat. But refused to provide any details of the meeting, leaving questions unanswered on who was paying the Taliban trip, where it was taking place, whether any women would be present, and what the Taliban wanted in return
The EU Commission on Monday refused to respond if any of its own delegation would include female staffers in order to conform with male-only events – as per Taliban tradition.
For several weeks now in Brussels, one question keeps coming up at European Commission press briefings: are Taliban representatives really going to come to Brussels to meet EU officials? When? And why?
Any such visas for Taliban officials would take up to at least four weeks to process, posing questions on whether the Taliban will actually come to Brussels this month.
An agreement on the EU’s deportation bill was reached late on Monday (1 June) after a proposal to break the deadlock included suggestions that deportation hubs be launched immediately once the legislation enters into force.
The Taliban has been invited to Brussels to discuss the deportation of refugees to a country where they will face what experts predict will be “danger and abuse.” If the EU wins, this is what they stand to lose.
EU cooperation with the Taliban legitimises this despotic (and despicable) regimeMillions of Afghan women and girls live under a draconian gender apartheid imposed by the very people – the Taliban regime – the EU commission is now courting.
Contacts with the Taliban, who rule Afghanistan, have been going on since at least August 2021, when the EU announced it would reach out to the group to help protect women and girls, after they took over the country. The Taliban have issued around 100 decrees, including bans on education and measures that effectively silence women.
Operating under the supervision of three Greek officers, the Afghan unit robbed, stabbed, threatened rape, and beat 61 newly-arrived migrants in 2023, says the report.