Editor, RE: "Free concert to mark International Migrants Day” (The New Times, December 15).

It’s a noble thing for a day to be dedicated to migrants in the world. There are approximately 232 million people living outside their countries (migrants), 35 million of these are under 20 years old.

Western migrants are usually the favored lot with easy access to jobs, social benefits etc. Migrants/immigrants have economic benefits with remittances back home a big contributor to GDP.

The most famous migrant in the world is Pope Francis, and being born in Argentina now living in Rome.

For African migrants, however, two saddening issues stand out;

1. Migrant deaths, especially of our African brothers and sisters in the Mediterranean, are the most haunting. International Organization of Migrations has projected 10,000 deaths of migrants this year and you can guess a good number are African.

2. Mistreatment, including racism against African migrants. Nowhere does this hit home like the case of Burundian migrants in the country.

I recently met a young Burundian man aged 17 or 18 years who approached me asking for help. He told me that he had moved away from the camp in Bugesera to look for a job in Kigali but was kicked out of his rental room after failing to pay for rent.

He had spent the night in a corridor somewhere but someone had offered him a job to paint a house for a paltry Rwf1000. However, the person (after he had completed the work) told him to come back for the money after a week.

This clearly is mistreatment of a vulnerable migrant desperate for money.

Stories abound of how Rwandans were poorly treated in various countries as they moved to search for better opportunities outside.

Personally, I find a celebratory concert insensitive given the plight of African migrants.

It’s no wonder the concert is inviting "international community living in Rwanda” to celebrate because theirs is a privileged life in the country, but there is a need to spare a thought to those suffering injustices as migrants.

Concerned Citizen