Kigali, Rwanda: The Government of Rwanda has confirmed it is in preliminary discussions with the United States over a potential deal to receive migrants deported from American soil, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s renewed mass deportation campaign targeting undocumented immigrants.
According to diplomatic sources, the talks were held in Washington, D.C. between Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nduhungirehe Olivier, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
While details remain scant, both governments have confirmed that discussions are still in their early stages and no final agreement has been reached.
The proposed arrangement is expected to involve a multi-million-dollar deal that would allow thousands of undocumented migrants to be resettled in Rwanda, a country positioning itself as a willing host in exchange for economic compensation.
This isn’t Rwanda’s first engagement in such relocation programs. In 2022, Kigali signed a £100 million agreement with the UK’s Conservative government to receive over 1,000 undocumented migrants, many of whom were asylum seekers from Syria. That deal attracted global scrutiny and legal challenges, but Rwandan officials defended it as a pragmatic and humane solution to a global migration crisis.
Rwanda now says it is prepared to accommodate more deportees, citing the construction of modern housing facilities designed specifically for migrant resettlement. Government insiders suggest Kigali is eyeing the opportunity as Washington appears willing to spend significantly on migrant deportation logistics.
The Trump administration recently directed that each deported individual be issued $1,000 in federal relief funds, a move analysts say incentivizes third-party countries like Rwanda to engage in deportation deals.
However, the proposed partnership has been met with backlash from human rights groups, who accuse both countries of “legitimizing human rights abuses” by turning deportation into a transactional process. Critics argue that forcibly relocating asylum seekers to unfamiliar countries strips them of the protection and due process guaranteed under international refugee conventions.
According to immigration data, the U.S. is currently home to an estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants. Over 35,000 have been deported in the first 100 days of Trump’s second term in office, with thousands more held in detention centers.
A significant portion of the deportees, over 60%, are of Latino origin, primarily from Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia, and Mexico.
International law prohibits forced deportations unless receiving countries sign binding agreements consenting to accept deported individuals. Several nations, including China, Iran, Costa Rica, and Tajikistan, have rejected such arrangements, leaving Rwanda as one of the few willing recipients.
If you would like your article/opinion to be published on Uganda’s most authoritative anews platform, send your submission on: [email protected]. You can also follow DailyExpress on WhatsApp for realtime updates.
