Rwanda Becomes The Latest African Country To Accept U.S. Deportees

Rwanda Becomes Latest African Country To Accept US Deportees Rwanda Rwanda confirmed this week that it will accept up to 250 deportees from the US under a new deal with the Trump administration, becoming the latest country to join Washington’s expanding third-country deportation program, the Associated Press reported. Rwanda government spokesperson Yolande Makolo confirmed the deal but didn’t provide a timeline for the deportations. According to the scheme, the migrants would receive “workforce training, health care, and accommodation to jump start their lives in Rwanda,” Makolo confirmed to the BBC. Rwanda, an East African nation of around 15 million people, will have the right to approve every person considered for resettlement. Rumors of a deal between Rwanda and the US first arose in May, when Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister said that, having endured a genocide in the mid-1990s, the country is guided by a spirit of offering “another chance” to migrants facing issues in countries across the world. Makolo said Rwanda proceeded with the deal with the US because many Rwandan families have experienced the challenges of displacement firsthand. She emphasized that the values of Rwandan society are deeply rooted in reintegration and rehabilitation. Human rights experts, however, warned that deporting migrants to a country that is not their place of origin – known as a third country – could be a violation of international law. In recent years, Rwanda has positioned itself as a destination for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, Reuters noted. However, the country has faced criticism over its human rights record, with concerns that migrants sent there might be deported again to countries where they could face harm and where they might have no ties and not even speak the language. The Rwandan government insists it can offer a safe place for these individuals. Rwanda reached a deal in 2022 with the United Kingdom to take migrants who had traveled to the UK to seek asylum. According to the plan, their asylum claims would be processed in Rwanda, and those approved would remain there instead of returning to the UK. This controversial agreement faced strong criticism from human rights organizations and was abandoned after the UK’s Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional in 2023. The US is seeking additional deals with African nations to take in migrants whose home countries have refused to allow them to return. This is part of US President Donald Trump’s plans to expel people he claims entered the country illegally and labeled as “the worst of the worst.” Eswatini and war-torn South Sudan have already accepted 13 people deported by the US, while Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama have taken in hundreds of Venezuelans and other deportees. Some analysts say the US has used aid and trade to pressure countries such as South Sudan and Eswatini into taking the deportees.