Le Rwanda dit discuter avec des pays européens pour recevoir en transit des migrants expulsés
Rwanda has begun "preliminary discussions" with several European states to serve as a transit country for migrants they would expel, the Rwandan government told AFP on Friday.
Kigali concluded a migration agreement in 2022 with the United Kingdom, at the time governed by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which wanted to return migrants who had arrived illegally on British soil to this African state in the Great Lakes region.
Upon coming to power in 2024, former Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quick to declare this highly criticized text, deemed "illegal" by the Supreme Court of Great Britain, "dead and buried".
"We have started preliminary discussions with some European countries, but nothing has been decided yet," Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told AFP when asked about talks on hosting migrants in Rwanda who have been refused entry to Europe.
Ms. Makolo did not specify which countries she was referring to.
When questioned on Thursday on Rwandan radio Royal FM about a specific agreement with Italy, the spokesperson replied that there was "no agreement" on this subject, but "discussions".
"One of the ideas we are discussing concerns the emergency transit center we have in Gashora" (east), where thousands of migrants stranded in Libya were sent from 2019 and many of whom have left, saving "many lives," she explained.
In such a place, "families" could "receive medical care, undergo some form of training, and rest," Yolande Makolo continued.
"This is also where asylum applications are processed" and these people "can either return to their country of origin if it is safe and if they wish to do so, or be resettled in other countries," she added.
In June, the European Parliament approved a regulation on the return of rejected asylum seekers, including the possibility for its member states to conclude agreements to establish detention centers outside the Union's borders, raising concerns among human rights advocates.
AFP reported in April that a handful of European states - Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands - were studying the possibility of such agreements with about ten countries, including Rwanda.
AFP
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