Up to 176 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya arrived in Rwanda on Friday, December 10, the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management has announced.

The refugees who were received in the early hours at Kigali International Airport have been taken to Gashora Transit camp where they will settle.

They included 34 females and 142 males. Eritreans made up a bigger part of the refugees as they were 102 followed by Sudan with 62. Five are from Somalia while 4 and 3 come from South Sudan and Ethiopia respectively. 

Rwanda has so far received a total of 824 refugees and asylum seekers from eight African countries namely Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon.

However, only 362 including the incoming group will be remaining in Gashora transit camp while others have been resettled in third party countries.

Up to now, 134 have been resettled to Sweden, 129 to Canada, 107 to Norway as France and Belgium host 66 and 26 individuals respectively. 

These refugees come to Rwanda under an agreement signed between the African Union and Rwanda in 2019, which was renewed in early November 2021.

Rwanda made the commitment to host the African refugees trapped in Libya after their desperate journeys to seek asylum in European nations that were cut short as European nations tightened controls on migrants.

Many ended up in detention centres where human rights groups have often documented human rights abuses like rape, torture and other crimes run by militias.

Upon reaching Rwanda, they get access to medical care, school and work opportunities.

In addition to refugees from Libya, Rwanda is also home to hundreds of thousands of Burundian and Congolese refugees.