Rwanda on Thursday received a new group of 119 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya. The evacuation of the 19th group and those before is part of a memorandum of understanding with the UN Refugee agency.
Rwanda in collaboration with the UN Refugee agency UNHRC has welcomed the nineteenth batch of over 100 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya. The group of 119 arrived at the Kigali international airport on Thursday , September 26, 2024.
The move is part of a memorandum of understanding to set up an emergency transit mechanism for evacuating asylum seekers and refugees out of Libya. The Transit plan aims to provide life-saving protection, assistance, and long-term solutions to refugees trapped in detention in Libya through temporary evacuation to Rwanda.
The latest batch consists of nationals from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to the Permanent secretary at the ministry in charge of Emergency management, MINEMA, Philippe Habinshuti, adding that the priority is to make sure that they feel safe.
We should note that this is not the first group that has arrived following the memorandum of Understanding. The first batch from Libya arrived in Rwanda in 2019 and since then over 2400 others have been received and 1,835 among them were resettled to third countries. This goes further to highlight what authorities had portrayed that Rwanda is safe and ready to welcome all Africans irrespective of their origins.
