The 19th group of 119 refugees and asylum seekers were evacuated to Rwanda from Libya, bringing the total of evacuees to 2,474 since 2019.
They will be hosted at the Emergency Transit Mechanism Centre in Gashora located in Bugesera District awaiting a durable solution such as resettlement.
This is the first group after extending the evacuation agreement until Dec 31, 2025 by the African Union, the Government of Rwanda and UNHCR.
At Kigali International Airport, they were welcomed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management HAbinshuti Philippe together with Ambassador of the European Union to Rwanda Belen Calvo Uyarra and UNHCR Representative in Rwanda Aissatou Dieng-Ndiaye.
The evacuation of refugees and asylum seekers out of Libya is in line with a Memorandum of Understanding signed on September 10, 2019 between the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR; the UN Refugee Agency, and the African Union to set up an emergency transit mechanism (ETM).
The Emergency Transit Mechanism aims at providing life-saving protection, assistance and long-term solutions to extremely vulnerable refugees trapped in detention in Libya, through temporary evacuation to Rwanda.
The first group of 66 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya arrived in Rwanda on 26th September, 2019. (End)