Rwandan genocide survivors currently living in the hostel where asylum seekers will be housed, sent by the UK under a controversial Home Office plan, were sent on a day trip to prevent them from disrupting the Interior Minister’s visit. Pretty Patel this month, the Observer has learned.
Patel toured the hostel known as Hope House when he was in Kigali to sign a deal with Rwanda. Her visit was carefully managed by both the Rwandan authorities and the Ministry of the Interior to present the plan in the best possible light.
The proposal was widely condemned as inhumane, illegal, unenforceable and prohibitively expensive. Critics include Tory MPs and colleagues, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said in his Easter sermon that the scheme “does not stand up to God’s judgment”.
The migrants were taken to Dover by a UK border force boat after trying to cross the English Channel last week. Photo: Ben Stansall / AFP / Getty Images
Asylum seekers from the United Kingdom will be housed in Hope House, a facility built to provide safe accommodation and a “new family” for between 150 and 190 young people orphaned in the 1994 genocide, when up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in three months of mass murder.
Many of the survivors have already moved out, but those who have survived have spent most of their lives in the dormitory and have limited resources.
On the day of Patel’s visit, authorities told 22 residents they would be taken on a 56-kilometer two-way trip to the southern city of Bougesera, where they spent much of the day visiting monuments to the genocide. After returning to Kigali, they were taken to parliament to see another memorial. They returned to the Hope House after the British staff had left.
“That’s why we don’t think everything is done in good faith,” a resident told the Observer.
The UK government has said it will pay the initial £ 120 million to the Rwandan government to implement the plan, but will have to pay extra for housing, food and travel.
Residents of Hope House, formerly known as the Genocide Students’ Association (AERG) hostel, have been told they will be relocated to make room for asylum seekers sent from the UK. They expressed fears about their future. “Often, residents who leave the hotel return after failing to find work. It’s hard to be out here when you don’t have a job, “one told the Observer last week. The second worries that promises to find them alternative homes will not be kept. “The government says it will hire us somewhere else, but we don’t believe it,” he said. “They tell us to leave, but they didn’t give us money. Remember that some of these survivors lost their entire family. Where do they want us to go? “
Residents demanded not to be named for fear of reprisals.
A spokesman for the Rwandan government told the Observer that it was “wrong” to assume that Hope Hostel was an orphanage or a place to house orphans from the genocide.
“Hope Hostel was built to accommodate students who survived the genocide, but is no longer used for these purposes, as most of the residents are adults with work and families and live alone,” the spokesman said.
“Currently, Hope Hostel hosts a small number of people, the youngest of whom is 29. Some of this group are in the process of graduating from university and college. It was agreed that they would soon leave and be entitled to living allowances until they found work. [The] AERG has been planning to turn the facility into a commercial hostel for some time.
Audace Mudahemuka, president of AERG, said the hostel was built by Rwanda donors to support the surviving students and “served a wonderful purpose.”
“But it was terminated long before the government contacted us to rent out this program. Only a small part of the hostel’s beds are used and the facility is expensive to maintain. “We were pleased when the government offered to rent the property, because the funds we receive from them will allow us to provide support to hundreds or even thousands of genocide survivors through our other projects across the country,” Mudahemuka said.
Officials did not deny reports of the day trip, saying only that “Hope Hostel residents can come and go as they please.”
There are also doubts about Patel’s claim that migrants sent to Rwanda after illegally entering the UK will thrive there if their asylum applications are rejected. The reporters who accompanied the Secretary-General were introduced to a couple from Yemen who ran a successful café. Burhan Almerdas, 37, praised the Rwandan people as “friendly” and said the local environment was business-friendly.
But although Rwanda is credited with rapid economic growth, some statistics are disputed and the benefits of each new prosperity are not shared. Bapaste Gacinzi, who sought refuge in Rwanda in 2018 from neighboring Burundi, said he had recently moved his family to Uganda because life was too “difficult” in Rwanda.
“I will also join them next month and try life again,” said Gatsinzi, who lived in the eastern province of Chibitoke, a town bordering Burundi.
An Ethiopian refugee who settled in 2018 told the Observer: “It is difficult to survive in Rwanda because the cost of living is very high. I set up a grocery store, but I have no customers. People don’t have money and I’ll close soon because I can’t afford rent. “
An Eritrean who came to Rwanda in 2017 said he could not find a regular job and survived on donations. Most of his friends have moved to Uganda, he said.
Rwanda human rights activists have long criticized Rwandan veteran leader Paul Kagame for his intolerance of dissent, and refugees who spoke to the Observer have asked for anonymity. According to officials, Rwanda is already home to more than 130,000 refugees from countries such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan.
Opposition politicians in Rwanda have criticized the agreement on the reception of asylum seekers from the United Kingdom, saying Western countries must “fulfill their international obligations on migration”.
In 2019, Rwanda agreed to accept refugees and asylum seekers evacuated from detention centers in Libya. The country also had a short-term agreement with Israel.
Last week, Kagame dismissed criticism of the deal. “We do not trade in human beings, please. This is not so. We are actually helping, “he said.
“This is a clear problem and it was actually something of an innovation that Rwanda introduced to tackle this migration problem.
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