Seven people deported from the USA to Rwanda
The East African country has welcomed deported migrants from the United States for the first time. The Rwandan government remains silent about the people’s origins.
Seven people deported from the United States arrived in Rwanda on August 16 and 17 , a government spokeswoman announced. This is the first time Rwanda has accepted individuals deported from the United States. The spokeswoman did not provide any information about the migrants’ countries of origin.
The migrants are initially being housed in facilities run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). However, the organization distances itself from the controversial US deportation practice. The IOM, it stated, does not support deportations from the US, nor does it facilitate them.
At the beginning of August, Rwanda agreed to accept up to 250 migrants from the United States. When these deportations would begin and how many people would be deported remained unknown.
Supreme Court approves deportation from the USA to third countries
The Ugandan Foreign Ministry had also announced that it would accept people deported from the United States under certain conditions, as long as they were not people with criminal records or unaccompanied minors.
Deportations to third countries , as practiced by the United States, are highly controversial. The United Nations (UN) also criticized this practice most recently in July , after the United States flew eight people to South Sudan. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that the US government could deport migrants to countries from which they did not originate.
