KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Amnesty International has strongly criticized the European Union’s plans to deport Afghan nationals, calling the policy a “disgrace” and a flagrant violation of the bloc’s own legal obligations.
The international rights group staged rallies outside the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels, demanding an immediate halt to the deportations. Amnesty argued that Afghanistan under Taliban rule cannot be considered a safe country for returnees, given its dire human rights situation, deepening humanitarian crisis, and systemic oppression of women and girls.
“Anyone deported back to the country faces real and well-documented risks to their safety and rights,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The organization called for the Taliban to be held accountable for widespread and systematic human rights abuses.
The criticism comes as several EU member states, including Germany, Belgium, and Austria, move to intensify deportations of Afghan nationals whose asylum claims have been rejected or who have committed crimes.
On Tuesday, the EU hosted a five-member Taliban delegation in Brussels to discuss direct facilitation of returns to Kabul, the first time the bloc has received such a delegation. The meeting has drawn widespread criticism from EU lawmakers, human rights groups, the Afghan diaspora, and women’s rights advocates, who warn that engaging with the Taliban risks normalizing and legitimizing a regime responsible for serious human rights violations, particularly against women and girls.
Rights groups and activists have also highlighted ongoing dangers in Afghanistan, pointing to documented cases of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other widespread abuses, as reported by the United Nations, among others.
EU leaders have defended the policy. Speaking before the German parliament on Wednesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said engagement with the Taliban is limited to the “lowest possible technical level” to enable the repatriation of Afghan male nationals convicted of criminal offenses in Germany.
“We are not normalizing this regime,” Merz said. “We are not extending a hand to this Taliban regime; rather, cooperation is being sought at the necessary technical level that serves the national interest of our country.”
German public broadcaster NDR reported earlier this week that Germany has agreed to accept six additional Taliban diplomats to support deportation efforts. Germany already hosts two Taliban diplomats at Afghanistan embassy in Berlin and its consulate in Bonn. German authorities have deported dozens of Afghan nationals in recent years, including more than 20 in February on a chartered flight to Kabul International Airport.
