Rwanda revealed as EU’s first migrant return hub, but what’s in it for Kigali?

Rwanda just became the first country to start EU talks on hosting refugee return hubs. It was confirmed on 6 August, but Kigali’s track record makes a mockery of European claims that migrants’ rights will be respected in third countries. The European Parliament voted through the ‘return regulation’ in June, to offshore migrant processing, but with no disclosed list of ‘safe’ destination countries. The sudden arrival of around 80,000 migrants in Ceuta at the end of July also redoubled pressure on the EU to move ahead, with Italy’s prime minister, Georgia Meloni, and Danish leader Mette Frederiksen leading the push in a letter also signed by 20 other member states. “Return hubs in third countries and other innovative solutions outside Europe must be implemented,” Frederiksen and Meloni added, in a joint post on social media on Monday (10 August). Meanwhile, Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo confirmed in an interview with Royal FM radio in Kigali that, while “there is no agreement yet”, they “are … in discussion” for the creation of an emergency protocol to send over Europe’s asylum seekers. Rwanda already had similar measures in place for refugees near the Burundian border, he added: “The image is the transit mechanism that we have in Gashora, a safe place for families who are stranded, who have no where else to go.” The Gashore facility was built in 2019 to temporarily house stranded African migrants stuck in Libya, before permanent housing was found in third countries. It is still unclear if the current site will be adapted to house Europe’s unwanted immigrants, or if Brussels will pay for new camps to be built.