With Kigali increasingly becoming a cosmopolitan city, government spokesperson Yolande Makolo says the migrants expected to be relocated to Rwanda, from the UK, will be easily supported to integrate into the local community.

Makolo noted this as she discussed the significance of the highly anticipated, and sometimes criticized, UK-Rwanda migration deal on this week’s episode of The Long Form – a weekly podcast of The New Times.

The discussion came hours after UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman signed, with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, an addendum to expand the scope of the migration deal between the two countries.

Braverman arrived in Kigali on Saturday, March 20, for a two day visit. She toured a number of initiatives supported by the partnership, from long-term accommodation sites to vocational training and education centres, as well as tech hubs. She was also received by President Paul Kagame on Sunday, March 19 to further underline Britain’s commitment to the deal.

Without providing much detail, Braverman told the media that the UK could start deporting asylum-seekers to Rwanda in the next few months.

They'll be helped to integrate into the community

Reacting on the initiatives to integrate the migrants, Makolo pointed out that Rwanda is ready to make the partnership a success.

Makolo said: "In terms of housing, we will be housing migrants in homes across Kigali and within our communities. There will be no camps, there will be no prisons, no detention centers, and we will have housing for them in Kigali and also in our secondary cities. They'll be helped to integrate into the community with government support.”

"And this will be done over a number of years hoping that they will then be integrated enough to be self-sufficient and be able to carry on [with] their lives here because it's a multi-year partnership. The migrants will also have access to education and training to help them build a career or start a business.”

Integration, she said, will also be extended to language classes, so that "they're able to learn the languages that we speak here.”

The UK-Rwanda migration deal, she pointed out, comes at a time when Rwanda positioned itself as a safe and secure place to live.

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"We have people living here from all over the world. We have a lot of students, especially African students, going to African Leadership University (ALU) or Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). When you walk around Kigali these days you see a lot of different people, a lot of different faces, lots of different accents, different languages, lots of new restaurants; so, it's becoming a really vibrant, cosmopolitan city. So, people from anywhere in the world will be able to integrate with some assistance.”

For the last three decades, since tragedy befell the country during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Makolo said, the government has worked very hard "to make this a decent and good, happy, and hopeful place to live.”

"We have invested a lot in building our country and our communities and Rwandans are proud to call this country home.”

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Rwanda and the UK inked the "Migration and Economic Development Partnership” in April 2022, to allow migrants and asylum seekers who are illegally in the UK to be transferred to Rwanda.

A first of its kind in the world, the deal seeks to promote "the dignity and empowerment of migrants,” by breaking the business model of criminal networks. It also aims to deter migrants from taking risky journeys across the English Channel.

The Migration and Economic Development Partnership concerns all the migrants and asylum seekers who arrived in the UK illegally from January 1, 2022. More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, compared with 8,500 in 2020, according to official statistics.

"We are hoping that when they come here and they see the country they have come to is not what they've heard, they will have a change of heart especially with the ones that are dead set against being here.”

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Asked about those who do not want to stay in Rwanda, she said they have an option. They can either go back to the country of origin, or a third country for which they have a legal right to live.

"We hope they'll stay here with us, and if they do, then they will get support to start a new life here and take advantage of new prospects and opportunities to, to build a life here.”

Rwanda, too, could benefit

Around the world, migrants make significant economic contributions to host countries and, according to Makolo, Rwanda is no exception.

"When you look around, you can see that people who have chosen to stay here, whether they're students who have come to university and then decided to stay and start a business or work here, you can see that migrants are already starting to make some economic, social and cultural contributions to our country.”

"And this is something that we've seen in other parts of the world where migrants have actually built economies and rich countries. They've contributed immensely to the growth of those places. There's no reason why with the right conditions that can't happen here as well. It'll be a good thing to increase our skilled workforce, our diversity as a country in many forms and our economic capacity.”

She noted that the UK is investing in the partnership "to ensure that our public services are upgraded, and that we have increased capacity to offer training and education and that our services” are not put under pressure.

We want to give it a chance to work

The partnership, therefore, she highlighted, is about Rwanda playing a role in contributing a solution to the migration crisis globally. The crisis, she reiterated, can be solved through multinational cooperation.

"No country on its own can solve this problem. Working together, we can have an impact. And this partnership; it's new, it's bold, it's innovative. We want to give it a chance to work. People should give it a chance to work.”

When successful, she said, it can grow to different countries.

"I'm sure we are helping the UK solve a challenge that they have. But the UK is also investing resources here in Rwanda so that we expand and accelerate our work to build a better Rwanda for Rwandans and all those who come to live with us.”

The UK has earmarked more than £140 million as an initial investment, subject to additional funding depending on the number of migrants transferred to Kigali.