The Taliban have yet to ask for Belgian visas for a possible meeting with the European Commission to discuss deportations to Afghanistan.
“We haven’t received a request for a Belgian visa, so at this moment no visas have been delivered, as we have not received a request yet,” Laurens Soenen, spokesperson for Belgian’s foreign ministry said.
The EU Commission has consistently framed the controversial planned meeting with the Afghan rulers as a “technical-level” discussion, a formulation intended to avoid any implication of formal recognition of the Taliban.
It also linked the expected talks to a proposal from 20 EU and Schengen states seeking better coordination on deportations of Afghans back to Kabul.
Speaking to EUobserver on Monday (8 June), Soenen said any such visas would take up to at least four weeks to process — raising questions on whether the Taliban will actually come to Brussels this month.
