October 07, 2019

African refugees find a new home in Rwanda

topic:	Refugees and Asylum
located:	Rwanda, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya
editor:	Bob Koigi

When a UNHCR-chartered plane recently touched down at the Kigali International Airport in Rwanda, it ushered in a new life for 66 refugees and migrants who had been held in detention camps in Libya as they tried to cross over to Europe through the Mediterranean.

The group, with nationals from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea consisted of 26 children, almost all of which came unaccompanied by parents or family members.

This is the first set of refugees who have found a second chance at life following an Emergency Transit Mechanism that was agreed upon between the Rwanda government, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the African Union.

This is the latest stab at a solution to the growing problem in Libya, a route that has since the ouster of former ruler Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, become common with African migrants trying to cross over to Europe.

But the migrants have found themselves trapped, being held in illegal detention centres, persecuted, and sold as slaves and prostitutes in a well-oiled slave trade racket. The UNHCR estimates that there are over 40,000 Africans trying to access Europe who currently are held in Libya under inhumane conditions.

Rwanda intends to accommodate as many as 30,000 evacuees, a decision President Kagame made last year at a time when news broke of slave auctions in the North African country. Certain arguments have been advanced that this could be a move by the European Union to keep Africans away from Europe.

While the migration topic has become controversial and emotive, the gesture by Rwanda, a country of 12 million people struggling with its internal problems to accommodate African refugees, even as the rest of Africa remains apprehensive and cagey, deserves applause and recognition as one of the most proactive and a true embodiments of the African spirit, ‘Africans for Africans’. The continent’s true commitment to its own is now under test more than ever. Rwanda just passed that test.

Image: Somali parents Abdulbasit and Zainab sit with their two-month-old daughter at the Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli ahead of the evacuation flight to Rwanda.© UNHCR/Tarik Argaz

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