Rwanda will tomorrow receive the first batch of refugees stranded in Libya as part of commitment made by President Paul Kagame’s government in 2017 to help ease the migrant crisis in the North African country.
President Kagame while addressing the UN-General Assembly-General Debate-New York on Monday, highlighted the issue of stranded refugees in Libya.
‘In the coming weeks Rwanda is preparing to receive and protect a number of refugees and asylum seekers from the detention camps in Libya,” Kagame said,
Kagame also called upon the United Nations high commission for refugees and African union to gather efforts in the wake to look for complex issue of the African refugees.
“We call every member of the united nations to uphold their legal obligation in a spirit of solidarity. This partnership is a clear sign that we can co-operate to address for complex problems. Africa itself is a source of solutions,” he said.
“There is no doubt that the challenge of global inequality can only be addressed. Rwanda stands ready to do her part,” he adds.
The first group of 75 migrants are expected in Kigali on Thursday ahead of their transfer to a transit facility just outside the capital.
Germaine Kamayirese, the Minister of emergency Management and Refugee Affairs said, Rwanda is nearing the final phase of implementation of evacuating african refugees stranded in North Africa.
Kamayirese said Rwanda signed an agreement of receiving refugees with African Union and UNHCR.
According to the UNHCR, some of the refugees that will arrive in Rwanda will settle in the country, some will be settled in third countries while others will be returned to countries where asylum had previously been granted.
The agency estimates that more than 50,000 people fleeing war and poverty in Africa remain in Libya, where they are holed up in inhumane detention centres.
Libya has bore a major brunt of the migrant crisis involving countries with access to the Mediterranean Sea.
Human trafficking cells have operated within the country for years, taking advantage of the crisis there. The country became a favoured departing point for migrants seeking to reach Europe by making the precarious sea crossing.
The African Union in 2017 urged its members to help the situation by taking in the migrants into their borders.
“I appeal to all member states of the African Union, the African private sector and African citizens to make financial contributions to help alleviate the suffering of African migrants in Libya,” AUC chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said in November 2017. “I urge member states that have logistical means to make them available to facilitate the evacuation of African migrants who wish to leave Libya.”
The Express News
