The Swiss government paid Taliban officials 13,490 Swiss francs for a Geneva hotel stay in August 2025, facilitating the deportation of three Afghan men. This direct financial and logistical collaboration, revealed by documents obtained through transparency laws, contradicts official claims and risks legitimizing a sanctioned regime.
Documents obtained by the investigative collective WAV under Switzerland’s transparency law and shared with Le Courrier detail a closer-than-admitted relationship between Swiss authorities and the Taliban regime in Kabul. The core of the cooperation centered on the identification and subsequent expulsion of Afghan nationals residing in Switzerland who had committed crimes. While the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) initially framed the August 2025 visit as a limited consular mission, the evidence points to a more accommodating arrangement.
The Mövenpick Protocol: Expenses and Contradictions
Between August 19 and 21, 2025, four Taliban officials stayed at the Mövenpick Hotel in Geneva, located near but outside the airport perimeter. This directly contradicts the SEM’s public assurance that the delegation had not left the airport premises during its visit. The Swiss Confederation footed the bill for the two-night stay, amounting to 13,490 francs.
The delegation's presence was not merely for document verification. A note from June 23, 2025, shows the Swiss embassy in Pakistan offering its compliments to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and renewing "its highest consideration," protocol language the institution said "does not allow political conclusions to be drawn."
Identifications and Rimpatriations
The operational goal of the visit was the identification of 13 Afghan citizens convicted of crimes in Switzerland and facing expulsion. The SEM also transmitted personal information about the people it intended to repatriate to the Taliban administration. Of the 13 people interviewed, the Taliban officials formally identified eight as Afghan nationals. Following further checks in Afghanistan, they confirmed one more identity but ultimately issued travel documents for only six individuals. All delegates were in possession of a diplomatic passport, and the DFAE Protocol service, responsible for managing privileges and immunities for diplomatic and consular bodies, agreed to facilitate the issuance of visas. The program included a “courtesy dinner for a maximum of nine people.”
The outcome of this process was the deportation of three men to Afghanistan, with further repatriations planned. The SEM stated these individuals were subject to a criminal expulsion order issued by a court, which had verified “the lawfulness of the return,” without providing further details.
Funding Taliban Delegation Stay
- Switzerland directly funded a Taliban delegation’s stay, spending 13,490 francs on accommodation that contradicted official statements about their confinement to the airport.
- The collaboration involved sharing personal data on deportees, with three individuals subsequently expelled.
- The initiative is seen as a dangerous precedent for normalizing a regime under international sanctions and facing ICC arrest warrants.
A Strategy of Normalization and Risk
The Swiss actions have sparked significant concern from legal experts and human rights organizations. The SEM’s disclosure of personal information to a regime that “systematically violates human rights” has been denounced by asylum law specialists as a scandal that could endanger the safety of those concerned. In July 2025, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against the highest-ranking Taliban leaders, yet shortly afterwards representatives of the regime were received in Geneva.
The Swiss government defends its position by asserting that the visa issuance for the Taliban delegates does not constitute political recognition. The SEM stated that none of the delegates benefited from diplomatic immunity. This distinction, however, does not address the central criticism: that the arrangement confers a degree of legitimacy on a regime that is subject to UN and EU sanctions, systematically violates human rights, and represses its opponents with extreme violence.
Broader European Context and Risk
Switzerland is not acting in isolation. Girls, women, and minorities are among the first victims of the regime’s policies, and Amnesty International has called for the immediate cessation of expulsions to Afghanistan, calling them a violation of international law.
From a geopolitical perspective, this strategy carries significant risk.
The Unanswered Questions on Guarantees
The exact nature of the checks performed by the Taliban, the criteria for release, and the long-term safety of the deportees remain opaque. The Swiss government has not provided detailed information on what, if any, assurances it secured regarding the treatment of the six individuals for whom travel documents were issued.
The political fallout is also unresolved. On September 22, 2025, Socialist parliamentarian Jean Tschopp questioned the Federal Council on the matter. The SEM and DFAE responses—that “these formulas of courtesy are an integral part of international communication and do not allow political conclusions to be drawn”—fail to address the substantive concerns raised by experts and politicians about the moral and strategic implications of this engagement. The fundamental question of whether the operational gains of expelling a handful of individuals justify the broader diplomatic and ethical costs remains unanswered.
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