UNHCR resumes life-saving evacuation flights to Rwanda for the first time in nearly a year
UNHCR resumes life-saving evacuation flights to Rwanda for the first time in nearly a year
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has evacuated a group of 79 vulnerable asylum seekers out of Libya to safety in Rwanda, via the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM). It was the first such flight to Rwanda in almost a year.
Evacuation flights from Libya to Rwanda had been on hold because of worldwide border closures and movement restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first flight set off on Thursday afternoon, from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, carrying the asylum seekers to safety in Kigali International Airport. The group included men, women, and children from Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia. Most were living in urban settings in Tripoli, but many had previously been held in detention for several years.
“This important mechanism, allowing us to organise evacuation flights to Rwanda, is a vital lifeline for asylum seekers who trapped in Libya. It provides them with hope for longer-term solutions”, said Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR Chief of Mission in Libya.
”However, the number of places available through the ETM mechanisms, as well as via other humanitarian evacuation flights, is still insufficient and we continue to urge countries to offer more places for the most vulnerable. In the absence of these legal pathways, desperate people will continue to embark on dangerous journeys by sea, and this can lead to the tragic loss of life, as we have seen in recent shipwrecks off the Libyan coast.”
Asylum seekers evacuated from Libya have been taken to the transit facility in Gashora, where UNHCR is providing them with assistance including shelter, food, water, medical care, psycho-social support, and several courses and activities.
The group will be hosted at the transit facility while further solutions are sought for them, including resettlement, voluntary return to countries of the previous asylum, voluntary return to countries of origin where it is safe to do so, or integration with local Rwandan communities.
“After several months of waiting and uncertainty, the resumption of evacuation flights from Libya to Rwanda is a fantastic message of hope for thousands of asylum seekers who will be able to reach safety and rebuild their lives in a welcoming and stable country like Rwanda, while durable solutions are being sought”, said Ahmed Baba Fall, UNHCR Representative in Rwanda”
UNHCR is grateful to the support received from Rwanda and the African Union through the Emergency Transit Mechanism, as well as other donor and resettlement countries who have helped us move vulnerable asylum seekers out of harm’s way in Libya. The agency is also grateful for the support of the Libyan authorities for facilitating procedures that led to this long-awaited flight.
Last month, UNHCR evacuated 153 asylum seekers via the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Niger – the first such flight to the country in seven months.
With this latest evacuation, 581 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers have been taken out of Libya this year, including 221 via resettlement.
Altogether 385 people have been evacuated out of Libya under the Rwanda ETM since September 2019.
Currently, more than 45,200 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR in Libya, including nearly 670 held in government-run detention centres.
UNHCR reiterates its call for the orderly release of all refugees and asylum seekers from arbitrary detention.
For additional information, please contact:
Caroline Gluck in Tripoli: [email protected]; +218 91 000 7195
Tarik Argaz in Tunis: [email protected]; +216 299 612 95
Elise Villechane in Kigali [email protected]; +250788315198
Eugene Sibomana in Kigali [email protected] +250788884713