The UK Rwanda asylum deal will save migrants, give them dignified lives

Author: Emma Mukasa

• 2023-03-24 05:54:00

The number of migrants who die while crossing seas, oceans and deserts trying to get to Europe, increase yearly. Many of them, Africans, flee wars, conflict, disasters, poverty and lack of opportunity.

In 2022, it was estimated that 2,062 migrants died while crossings the Mediterranean Sea.

 In the previous year, 1,924 people were reported to have died or gone missing on the central and western Mediterranean routes, while an additional 1,153 perished or went missing on the northwest African maritime route to the Canary Islands (politically part of Spain), according to UNHCR.

The people who cross these dangerous routes, are also the victims of profit-seeking criminal human smuggling gangs that are exploiting them mostly when they fail to pay the entire smuggling fee.

Many migrants are held in slave-like conditions until they are able to pay off their fees. Females are forced into prostitution or domestic servitude while children are abducted to work in child pornography, prostitution rings or child labor. They find themselves living in horrible conditions, unable to access essential services.

The UK-Rwanda migration and economic development partnership – signed in April 2022 – came as a solution to this global migration crisis.

With this agreement, Rwanda will be giving a home to vulnerable migrants from the UK and providing them with protection and support to build a decent life.

They will be integrated into the Rwandan community, provided with the education and training they need so that they can be able to build careers, start businesses, and get jobs.

They will learn languages used in Rwanda, among others.

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The UK asylum seekers will not be accommodated in refugee camps, make-shift tents, detention centers or prison. They will reside in self-contained homes across Kigali and Rwanda’s secondary cities within Rwandan communities.  

During the visit of UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, to Rwanda, On March 19, both countries launched a Rwf60 billion housing project that will see 1,500 units constructed in Gahanga Sector, Kicukiro District. These high-quality housing units will accommodate the refugees and provide humanitarian support to thousands of people around the country.

This project which will see 528 homes built in the first phase, in six months, includes roads, water, electricity, telecommunications networks, malls, an early childhood development center, and recreational facilities.

The UK is investing in Rwanda’s economic development, building the country’s capacity to be able to care of migrants and host community. 

The country’s public services are upgraded, to ensure that existing services are not put under pressure.

Rwanda is now creating more opportunities to help those who will be relocated to be self-sufficient and able to carry on their lives unhindered.

Not only will this deal help to dismantle criminal human smuggling networks and save lives.

 It will also increase Rwanda’s skilled workforce and diversity in many forms including economic capacity. 

In many parts of the world, migrants have built economies and contributed hugely to the growth of their host countries.

Rwanda is ready to welcome them, give them a dignified life, and uncover or unleash their talent so as to build opportunity on African continent.