Deportations to Rwanda: The Hope Hostel is still available

In Rwanda’s capital Kigali, preparations for deportation flights from Great Britain continue despite the temporary stop. It wouldn’t be the first time that refugees have been brought into the country.

The Hope Hostel in Kigali is being revamped. For weeks we sawed, hammered and cleaned. Soon the first deported migrants from Great Britain will live here.

For Ismael Bakina, the manager of the hostel, things can get started: “We have 50 rooms and can accommodate up to 100 people in the hostel. You will be allowed to move around freely and can also leave the premises.”

About 900 people resettled from camps in Libya

It is not the first time that migrants from other countries are to be brought to Rwanda. Between 2014 and 2017 there was an agreement with Israel to fly refugees from Eritrea and Sudan to Rwanda.

Another agreement followed in 2019, which also involved the United Nations refugee agency and was funded by the EU. Since then, around 900 people have been resettled in Rwanda from camps in Libya.

Rwanda’s president denies allegations of human trafficking

Sanaa from Yemen is among the refugees now living in Kigali. She feels safe, she told British broadcaster Sky News: “The people here are so hospitable. We didn’t feel foreign. It’s a safe country, clean, with friendly people.”

Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s long-serving president, is selling the new agreement with Great Britain in a similar way. Open criticism of Kagame, who has been in power for more than 20 years, is rarely voiced. He is repeatedly accused of brutally persecuting members of the opposition and of having established a regime of fear.

He firmly rejects the allegation of human trafficking with Great Britain: “You can’t find anything bad about it. We are not involved in the buying and selling of people.”

Opposition activist: “Rwanda is a poor country”

For Kagame, it’s not just about the equivalent of 140 million euros that flowed into the state coffers before the refugees arrived. He sees himself as the country’s modernizer and wants to position Rwanda as a reliable partner for the West. According to him, the deported people will be fine.

But opposition activist Victoire Ingabire has doubts: “We already have thousands of young Rwandans who don’t have a job. If the government can’t create jobs for its own people, how can you promise to employ refugees? Rwanda is a poor country.”

Urge UN to reconsider deal

The United Nations refugee agency also doubts that Rwanda has the resources to adequately care for the refugees from Great Britain. The UN is urging both countries to reconsider the deal.

But in London and Kigali nobody wants to hear about it. Preparations continue at Hope Hostel.