Activists fear the UK could follow the European Union in negotiating with the Taliban over deporting failed Afghan asylum seekers back to Afghanistan.
The EU said its decision to hold talks last month in Brussels with Afghanistan’s “de facto authorities” were necessary to deport asylum seekers who had committed crimes or were deemed dangerous.
This is despite the bloc not recognising the Taliban government since the militant group – still designated a terrorist organisation by many – returned to power in 2021. The UK, likewise, does not recognise the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.
While no official agreements were announced after the talks, a Taliban spokesman said discussions covered possible resumptions of consular services and “the need for trust-building measures”.
Critics have warned the talks legitimise and embolden a regime accused of serious human rights violations. Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician who now lives in the UK, said that if the Taliban were welcomed onto British soil, it would be “a dishonour to the blood of those British troops that were killed in Afghanistan”.
Koofi, the first female deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament, said she was already “disappointed by the way the special envoy of the UK is kind of unconditionally engaged with the Taliban, but to bring them to the UK would be another level of degrading their foreign affairs policy”.
Although there is no UK arrangement in place to return people to Afghanistan, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has previously refused to rule out sending back failed Afghan asylum seekers in her quest to toughen immigration policies and increase deportations. In April, she said she was “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and the EU about a returns programme for rejected applicants.
Afghan women protest against the closure of universities to women by the Taliban in Kabul in December 2022. Critics have warned that dialogue with the Taliban legitimise and embolden a regime accused of serious human rights violations (Photo: Reuters)A UK Government spokesperson told The i Paper: “We continue to monitor conversations countries are having with others, including Afghanistan. Protection will always be provided to those who face danger in their own country. However, for those who have travelled here illegally, if they can safely return home, they will have to do so.”
A spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the UK special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Lindsay, is focused on the protection of women and girls. “He does engage the Taliban – but in doing so always takes the opportunity to call them out for their abhorrent treatment of women and girls. Having a dialogue allows us to directly press the Taliban and take a clear stand against their horrific policies,” they said in a statement.
During the war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, 457 UK personnel died fighting the Taliban insurgency. Afghans are one of the largest groups of people seeking asylum in the EU and UK, but an increasing number of governments want to start deporting those whose claims are rejected or who commit crimes in their host countries.
Fawzia Koofi, the first woman deputy speaker of parliament in Afghanistan, and former member of peace negotiations with the Taliban, said she was disappointed by the British special envoy’s engagement with the regime (Photo: Per Ole Hagen/Getty)Last month, Koofi wrote that the Taliban had detained three members of her family, torturing one, in an attempt to silence her. She has campaigned against the systematic erosion of women’s rights by the Taliban, pointing out that birds now have better protection in the country than women.
“I think the UK has a lot of leverage to support and empower the people of Afghanistan [to create] a political pathway so Afghanistan is a country with a government that is legitimate, that respects fundamental rights of human beings and the dignity of women, that is in peace with its people and in peace with the rest of the world,” she said.
Earlier this year, the UN high commissioner for human rights described Afghanistan as a “graveyard for human rights” that enforces “gender apartheid”.
In January 2025, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Supreme Leader and chief justice of the Taliban, accusing them of crimes against humanity for the persecution of women and girls.
Weeks before the Taliban met EU officials in Brussels last month, its police forces were brutally cracking down on protests in Herat, western Afghanistan. They used live fire to disperse the rare demonstration against the detention of dozens of women accused of violating strict Islamic dress codes. Two people, including a child, were reportedly killed.
Samira Hamidi, an Afghan women’s rights activist and a regional campaigner for Amnesty International based in London, said she was “disgusted” by the “double standard” at the EU. “They host these conferences and invite Afghan women and civil society and they issue repeated statements, ‘We stand for the people of Afghanistan. We call for respect to human rights and women’s rights.’ And then at the same time, ‘We have no choice, we have to talk to the Taliban.'”
A Taliban security officer stands guard as Afghan burqa-clad women wait in queue in the midst of a downpour to receive food supplies in Kabul in March 2025 (Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP)She said she was “really worried” that the UK would do the same. “It felt like an additional round of dishonesty and betrayal to all affected people in Afghanistan, especially women and girls,” she said.
The EU talks were widely condemned by human rights organisations who said Afghanistan should not be considered safe for returns. In May, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan said that returnees faced the risk of harassment, detention, torture, hunger and worse.
Activists told The i Paper that deporting Afghans back to Afghanistan would violate the principle of non-refoulement – a cornerstone of international humanitarian law – which prohibits states from returning individuals to a country where they could face human rights violations, such as persecution or torture. This applies to anyone, regardless of their immigration status.
“[The EU is] discussing the deportation of criminals now,” said Hamidi, but “they can expand it easily”.
Sayed Hussain Anosh, executive director of the Afghan-led Human Rights Defenders Plus, added that: “Even if people have committed crimes they deserve a just trial.”
Anosh, who lives in Dublin after fleeing Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul, said the EU talks were emboldening the Taliban regime internationally and domestically, where they were using it as a propaganda tool. “It’s just one meeting but they are using it to influence the mindset [of people] and create an atmosphere of fear.”
Koofi said that the international community’s “policy of appeasement” had given “the Taliban that mentality that no matter what they do, nobody will hold them accountable”.
“[The Taliban] are very pleased,” she said. “Sometimes they say, ‘We have defeated Nato. We have defeated the international community. They had their test in Afghanistan. We defeated all of them, so now the world must engage with us.’”
Almost five years after the Taliban returned to power, people in Afghanistan are “so hopeless, so disappointed, and exhausted,” says Koofi. “A lot of people in the country tell me, ‘Why do you even engage with [the international community]? Haven’t we seen them leave Afghanistan the way they did? Haven’t we seen them betray us?’”
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