Rwanda to welcome first group of African refugees from Libya

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 — updated on July 06, 2020 - 2 min read

Migrants sit inside the Ganzour shelter after being transferred from the airport road due to fighting in the Libyan capital Tripoli on September 5, 2018. NGOs say migrants in Libya are suffering. Rwanda has rekindled hope for those willing to be resettled. PHOTO | AFP

By AFP

A group of 75 African refugees and asylum-seekers is expected to be airlifted from Libya to Rwanda on Thursday, a UN official said, the first of what could be thousands relocated under a new programme.

Earlier this month, Rwanda signed a deal with the African Union (AU) and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR agreeing to take in African refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Libya.

In the chaos that followed the fall and killing of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 uprising, Libya became a key transit point for sub-Saharan African migrants seeking to embark on dangerous journeys to Europe.
The UN says some 42,000 refugees are currently in Libya.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame first offered to take in Africans stuck in Libya back in November 2017, the same month a CNN report showed what appeared to be a slave market there.
The issue took on new urgency in July when more than 40 people were killed in an air strike on a migrant detention centre in the Libyan town of Tajoura.
The UN has been criticised for its handling of a transit mechanism for evacuees from Libya established in 2017 on the other side of the continent, in Niger.
The facilities there have struggled with overcrowding and the slow pace of resettlement.
But UN and Rwandan officials say they have learned from Niger's experience.
The AU, the continental bloc headquartered in Addis Ababa, hopes other member states will follow Rwanda's lead and welcome African refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Libya.
So far, though, no similar arrangements have been announced.

Rwanda to welcome first group of African refugees from Libya

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