Rwanda and UK Rwanda and the United Kingdom (UK) recently signed the Migration and Economic Development Partnership on Thursday 14th April 2022.

The partnership will see Rwanda accommodating asylum seekers staying in UK illegally.

The deal is meant to seek a solution for migrants arriving in the UK illegally and discourage others with the same intention.

Daily Mail has reported that almost 100 migrants have been given notices that they will be sent to Rwanda in coming days.

Under this program, the UK will provide an upfront investment of £120 million to fund invaluable opportunities for Rwandans and migrants including secondary qualifications, vocational and skills training, language lessons and higher education.

These asylum seekers from African countries and others outside the continent will be treated decently like Rwandans upon arrival. It is expected that those willing to return to their mother lands will be helped to do so.

Before sending the first batch to Rwanda, Daily Mail has reported that asylum seekers are abandoning attempts to seek refuge in the UK.

The media house based in the UK has also revealed that ten migrants have already asked to return home rather than being sent to Rwanda.

Some officials from UK’s Home Office have said that they expect a further increase in the number of asylum seekers abandoning their attempts to stay in the UK as the first batch will be flown to Rwanda early next month.

‘It’s a positive start,’ said a Government source. ‘We always said we need to get the flights going before it becomes a deterrent, but this shows the direction we’re heading and why we introduced the policy.’

Rwanda has recently revealed that it is has already prepared hostels designated to accommodate these asylum seekers. These include Hope House located in Kinyinya Sector, Desire Resort Hotel located in Kagugu Sector of Gasabo District and Hallmark residences located in Kanombe Sector in Kigali City.

These buildings are equipped with all necessary equipment for better living conditions of migrants to be accommodated there. Notified asylum seekers have seven days to appeal against the decision. It is said that at least 20 appeals have been lodged.

It is also understood that the first flights to Rwanda have already been delayed by a legal appeal from a coalition of charities and a trade union representing immigration officials.

UK officials have however revealed that the first migrants are expected to have been deported not later than 10th June before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda on 20th June 2022.

According to reports, the Home Office reportedly expects about 300 people to be deported to Rwanda each year.

Meanwhile, the UK has announced that a boat carrying 41 migrants was detected in the Channel on Friday, while 106 migrants crossed in three boats on Thursday. Around 9,000 have crossed so far this year.

The UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel and Dr. Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister, last week faced down United Nations agencies that have also been criticizing the migration and economic partnership with Rwanda.

The Home Secretary and Dr. Biruta travelled to Geneva to urge the UN refugee agency to stop rubbishing the policy, saying there was an ‘urgent moral imperative’ to send migrants to Rwanda. They said those criticising their policy were failing to offer viable alternatives to repair a ‘broken’ global asylum system.

As UK plans to send the asylum seekers to Rwanda, sources reveal that people seeking asylum in France have started increasing ‘because they can’t predict what will happen to them when they arrive in the UK’.

BBC has however reported that the number of people living in camps around Calais has fallen, but it’s hard to tell whether that’s linked to the resettlement policy, or to tougher tactics by French police to break up migrant camps.

Rwanda and UK signed the Migration and Economic Development Partnership on Thursday 14th April 2022.