The European Union renews and increases funding for the reception of migrants evacuated from Libya to Rwanda. While the question of the agreement between London and Kigali continues to be debated, for more than three years the center of Gashora, 60 kilometers south of the Rwandan capital, has been welcoming asylum seekers in transit, who are waiting for their files are accepted in other countries. A program now renewed until 2026.
With our correspondent back from Gashora, Lucie Mouillaud
For this second phase, the European Union is granting an additional 22 million euros for the reception in Rwanda of evacuees from Libya, the majority of migrants from Eritrea or Sudan. A program launched in 2019 and whose continuity is essential for Philippe Habinshuti, permanent secretary of the ministry in charge of emergency management:
” There are always people waiting to be evacuated. This renewal of assistance will help the operations of this center, so that the people who are here continue to benefit from this assistance, but will also allow this center to continue to welcome the same people who need the same security, of the same support. »
Since its opening, the center of Gashora received more than 1,500 migrants evacuated from Libya. This new agreement should make it possible to receive an additional 2,600 by 2026. Asylum seekers stay there while their file is studied by third countries, including Canada, Sweden, Norway and France. Aïssatou Masseck Dieng-Ndiaye, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for Rwanda, explains:
” We have people who come here with trauma, who have been tortured. There have been cases of rape. So getting out of this state of affairs is already a solution. Arriving here in Rwanda, a space where security reigns, I think is already a solution. Maybe not the final, because the most important thing is that they rebuild their lives, whether in Rwanda or in another third country. That’s what’s important to us. It’s once we’ve reached this stage that we can say that we’ve found a lasting solution. »
More than 900 evacuees from Libya have already been resettled in third countries since the start of the program. If they also have the choice of settling permanently in Rwanda, none has so far requested it.
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