Rwanda expects first asylum seekers from UK soon
STORY: Rwanda expects its first 50 asylum seekers transferred from Britain by the end of May, a government spokesperson has said.
That's under the UK's controversial and highly criticized plans announced in April.
On Thursday (May 19) Rwandan officials took journalists on a tour of hostels that are being adapted to house the migrants.
Deputy government spokesperson Alain Mukurarinda:
"They will not be locked up, they will be in the sites you have visited, they will be able to leave and enter. At some point once their status has been fixed, they will have to go and live with other Rwandans. But they will be free. They will not be prisoners."
Last year more than 28,000 migrants and refugees made the crossing from mainland Europe to Britain on rickety boats.
The UK's plan to send asylum seekers to the East African country is pitched as an attempt to disrupt the business model of people-smuggling gangs.
But concerns have been raised about Rwanda's human rights record, which the British government itself noted last year.
Mukurarinda said a solution had to be found to a problem that takes people's lives as they cross the desert or the Mediterranean Sea.
"And then we have the experience of welcoming refugees and we Rwandans have also experienced this situation of being a refugee. So if there is a way to solve this problem by saving lives I don't think Rwanda could not accept."
The British government said in a statement that it has started to notify those who are likely to be relocated, with the first flights expected to take place in the coming months.
