Rwanda accepts refugees
HUNDREDS of African refugees trapped in Libyan detention centres will be evacuated to Rwanda within the next few weeks as part of increasingly urgent efforts to relocate people as conflict rages in the north African nation, the UN said yesterday.
Vincent Cochetel, special envoy for the central Mediterranean for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said 500 refugees will be evacuated to Rwanda in a deal signed with the small east African nation and the African Union yesterday.
“The agreement with Rwanda says the number can be increased from 500 if they are satisfied with how it works,” said Cochetel. “It really depends on the response of the international community to make it work. But it means we have one more solution to the situation in Libya. It’s not a big fix, but it’s helpful.”
Libya has become the main conduit for Africans fleeing war and poverty trying to reach Europe, since former leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011.
People smugglers have exploited the turmoil to send hundreds of thousands of migrants on dangerous journeys across the central Mediterranean although the number of crossings dropped sharply from 2017 amid an EU-backed push to block arrivals.
Under the Rwandan deal, refugees will be airlifted to Rwanda in groups of about 50 and stay in a transit facility located on the outskirts of the capital, Kigali, said UNHCR officials.
“The government has said ‘if you (UNHCR) think the people should stay long-term in Rwanda, no problem. If you think they should be reunited with their family, they should be resettled, no problem. You (UNHCR) decide on the solution’,” said Cochetel.
“They will be legally residing in Rwanda as refugees.”
A landlocked country of 12 million that ranks as one of the Africa’s most densely populated, Rwanda already supports around 150 000 refugees from neighbouring DRC and Burundi.
Cochetel said funding would mainly come from the EU but also from the African Union which has received $20 million (R293m) from Qatar to support the reintegration of African migrants and refugees.
Rwanda is the second African nation to provide temporary sanctuary to refugees and migrants stranded in Libya. The UNHCR has evacuated around 2 900 refugees out of Libya to Niger since 2017 through a similar emergency transit mechanism.
“The more African countries we have on board... is good because it demonstrates to Europe there are also things happening in the South,” said Cochetel.