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Representatives from several European countries visited Rwanda this week, the government in Kigali told AFP, with discussions under way for it to serve as a transit point for deported migrants.
The German magazine Der Spiegel reported last week that Germany, Austria, Denmark, Greece and the Netherlands were preparing to send a delegation to Rwanda to discuss setting up centres for rejected asylum seekers.
All five have said they want to create such “hubs” outside the European Union by the end of the year, after the European Parliament passed legislation in June allowing member states to do so but angering rights groups.
“The visit indeed occurred, and the negotiations are ongoing,” Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe confirmed to AFP but refused to provide further information on the talks or a possible timetable.
The government in Kigali indicated earlier this month that it had begun “preliminary discussions” with several European countries about migrant transit centres but did not specify which.
One suggestion under discussion is the Gashora Transit Centre, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Kigali, where migrants stranded in Libya were sent from 2019 while their asylum applications were processed.
Many have since left, government spokesperson Yolande Makolo told a local radio station.
Rwanda struck a deal with the Conservative government of then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson in 2022 to accept undocumented migrants arriving on small boats across the Channel from northern France.
The issue has been a headache for successive British governments, particularly since the UK left the EU.
But upon taking office in 2024, Labour prime minister Keir Starmer scrapped the plan, which the UK Supreme Court deemed “illegal”.
AFP reported in April that the five European countries were considering migrant agreements with about 10 states, including Rwanda.
