Amidst high unemployment and a housing crisis, many in Rwanda are apprehensive about the $272 million UK migrant deal, which has been criticized by rights groups. Kigali, Rwanda – Lush hills draped in verdure belie the controversies surrounding two locations in Kigali that may soon host hundreds of people who had no plans of ever living in Rwanda.
In northern Kigali, Hope Hostel sits on a hill overlooking the capital. Across town in the southwest sits the Bwiza Riverside Estate, where manicured greenspaces, fences, and small plots of land paint a picture of a quaint neighborhood – one that, despite its suburban charm, also feels sterile and artificial.
Rwanda’s government has earmarked the two sites to host asylum seekers expected to be sent from the United Kingdom as part of a 220-million-pound ($272m) deal to relocate refugees landing on British shores to the East African country. After months of wrangling and concerns over the human rights implications of the deal, the UK’s parliament passed the bill late on Monday. It is expected to become law soon despite a cascade of issues regarding the plan’s feasibility, cost, and legality and continued criticism from refugee rights activists.
The Hope Hostel neighborhood on the outskirts of Kigali bustles with street sellers, moto taxis, and imposing villas. According to its managing director, Ismael Bakina, the hostel has 50 double rooms, which can host up to 100 guests. Initially, the hostel had a different purpose. Until two years ago, it housed survivors of the 1994 genocide, which killed almost a million people, mostly minority ethnic Tutsis. But after former UK Home Secretary Priti Patel visited the premises on a tightly controlled tour in 2022, the survivors were evacuated without housing alternatives.
For now, the hostel sits empty, awaiting the political process in the UK to reach a conclusion. Bakina told Al Jazeera it is ready to receive asylum seekers as soon as the first flights take off.
Rights groups have often criticized Rwanda for its repressive political environment and restrictions on freedom of expression. Journalists, opposition figures, and activists have also been jailed or disappeared after criticizing the government. Residents who did share their views did so anonymously, and some offered a more neutral take.
Rwanda’s economy mainly relies on services, tourism, and agriculture. A 45-year-old man who works as a taxi driver in the same neighborhood and who refused to give his name said it could go both ways: Rwandans could have more work, but the relocated asylum seekers could also be competing with locals for job opportunities.
The UK has provided Rwanda with an initial 220 million pounds ($272m) to take in asylum seekers for five years and has committed 370 million pounds ($456m) over the next five years, regardless of how many people are sent to Rwanda. “We won’t be able to give them jobs. They’ll have money from the UK, but after that finishes, what happens?” Frank Habinenza, head of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and the only opposition politician elected to parliament, told Al Jazeera.
“We are a small economy with high unemployment and few jobs,” added the aspiring candidate in July’s presidential election.
As Kigali’s population expands, housing demand is also escalating, and the government’s decision to repurpose spaces for asylum seekers has ignited a maelstrom of opinions behind closed doors.
Thousands of people were left homeless after the government demolished informal housing in Kigali in 2019, offering only about $100 per person for temporary relocation to those who owned the property they were occupying at the time of the demolition.
The shortage of affordable housing is set to double by 2050 as the city’s population increases and the government fails to achieve its housing development goals.
“The Rwandan government wanted to show Suella Braveman they had enough houses for refugees, so they showed the Bwiza estate,” said Victoire Ingabire, an opposition politician formerly imprisoned and barred from politics due to her strong criticism of the government.
“It was a PR move because they didn’t know if the deal would happen, so they just wanted to show them something, and that was what they had at the time.”
A government spokesperson told Al Jazeera that Rwanda has negotiated agreements with other facilities and will sign leases when flights are confirmed but declined to provide details.
In southern Kigali, the Bwiza Riverside Estate looks deserted. It was advertised during a carefully managed visit by former UK Home Secretary Suella Bravemen as the place where asylum seekers will be housed.
“Human rights are also a problem because they didn’t choose to come here. They chose to go to the UK, and the UN obliges countries to accept refugees,” Hubinenza said.
“Rwanda welcomes refugees but only if they want to be here, not if they’re forced to come here. That is why the deal is illegal, and it’s against the dignity of the refugees and our people,” he added.
Rwanda is home to more than 135,000 refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other countries in the region, but they are supported by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and not the Rwandan government.
At the Gashora transit camp, about an hour southeast of Kigali, Eritrean, Sudanese, and Somali refugees await decisions on their asylum applications for European and North American countries. Although the conditions are better than at Nkamira with a school and sports facilities, asylum seekers have complained in the past of feeling like they are stuck in limbo.
A UK Home Office spokesperson said: “Those relocated to Rwanda will not be living in refugee camps. … They will initially be accommodated in reception centers before moving into longer-term accommodation.”
Rwanda had a similar deal with Israel in 2015, which saw 4,000 asylum seekers sent to the East African country, but they all left, and the deal was canceled in 2018. Some of those asylum seekers were driven in groups to the Ugandan border with no work or documentation, leading many to take the central Mediterranean route to Europe.
“People will come here, and after a few months, they will go back to the UK,” said Ingabire, comparing the latest deal with the Israeli one. She said the Rwandan government knows that but is still going ahead with the proposal due to its financial incentive.
“There’s a fear of division in the country, and we don’t want any politics on ethnic, cultural, or religious divisions, so we need to be careful of the impact of our policies on those divisions.”
