Refugees living in Rwanda have warned those due to arrive on a flight from Britain what challenges lie ahead.
The controversial deportation flight to Rwanda will take off from the UK on Tuesday with immigrants who have sought refuge here, Cabinet minister Liz Truss said.
A British court on Monday did not stop the government from deporting asylum-seekers despite arguments made by rights advocates that the flights would undermine the “basic dignity” of people escaping war and oppression.
On top of widespread criticism in the UK, refugees already living in Rwanda have told AP about how they want to leave.
"Sometimes I play football and in the evening I drink because I have nothing to do," Faisal told AP, a 20-year-old from Ethiopia who was relocated to Rwanda from Libya in 2019.
Urubel Tesfaye, a 22-year-old from Ethiopia, told AP he is happy he found a part-time job in a bakery in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
But his friends speak of moving on to Canada or the Netherlands: “They have a disease in the head and cannot settle here.”
Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and still among the least developed despite its focus on modernizing since the country’s 1994 genocide.
Hundreds of people sent previously to Rwanda under a deal with the United Nations (UN) have since been resettled in third countries, according to the UN refugee agency.
But those sent to Rwanda under the deal with Britain must apply for asylum in Rwanda.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame told diplomats in Kigali - after the agreement with Britain was signed in April - that his country and the UK aren’t engaged in buying and selling people, but instead trying to solve a global migration problem.
Rwandan authorities have said the agreement would initially last for five years, with the British government paying £120 million upfront to pay for housing and integrating the asylum-seekers.
Those set to arrive under the new agreement will be housed in shelters around Kigali with features like private rooms, televisions and a swimming pool.
The manager at the Hope Hostel, Bakinahe Ismail, told AP that the security-patrolled accommodation is “not a prison”.
The Gashora centre for previous arrivals in a rural area outside the capital offers more basic shared living facilities.
Peter Nyuoni, a refugee from South Sudan, told AP: "The UK government, my message to them is that human beings are human beings. You cannot tell them `Go and stay here’ or `Go and do this or that.’ No. Because if they feel better in the UK, then the UK is better for them.
"There is nothing for me to want to stay here.”
Rwanda is already home to more than 130,000 refugees and migrants from other African nations and countries such as Pakistan, the government has said.
The prospect of taking in more has been criticised by opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who said the government should focus on the internal political and social issues that push some Rwandans to become refugees elsewhere.
Some Rwandans told AP the local economy isn’t ready to handle the people arriving from Britain.
"Look, many people are unemployed here," said Rashid Rutazigwa, a mechanic in the capital.
"But if the government promises to pay salaries to (the migrants), then it will be fine," he added.
