Rwanda has agreed to accept up to 250 migrant deportees from the U.S., making it the latest country to acquiesce to diplomatic pressure from the Trump administration to take in some of the thousands of migrants it has detained.
"Rwanda has agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants, in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation," said Yolande Makolo, a Rwandan government spokesperson. Rwanda’s recovery from the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus has made the country a standout in Africa.
A number of African countries have seen the Trump administration’s focus on immigration as an opportunity to build goodwill with Washington, which has not always prioritized the continent.
Rwanda took the action in part to strengthen relations with the U.S., according to a second Rwandan official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic relations.
“When you’re a small country, any time you can find a way consistent with your own policies and values, to be able to talk to a major country about something that it is interested in and not just asking them to take an interest in your issues, it just creates a more productive, obviously not equal, but a more balanced relationship and that’s good for both sides,” the official said.
The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The State Department has already sent Kigali a list of people it wants to send in the first tranche. Rwanda expects to receive the first 10 deportees soon and will accept deportees in small groups, the second Rwandan official said. The nationality of the deportees was not immediately clear.
The administration has asked at least 15 African countries, including Eswatini and South Sudan, to accept migrants who cannot return to their home countries as part of its sweeping immigration strategy.
The U.S. will provide money to support these efforts, according to the second Rwandan official, who declined to say how much. El Salvador received $6 million to incarcerate Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals. Rwanda, unlike El Salvador, will not be imprisoning anyone. The funds from the U.S. to Kigali will support extra work by Rwandan immigration authorities and the training programs.
Reuters previously reported that Rwanda had agreed to accept the migrants but did not provide details about the payment from the U.S. or the Rwandan government’s motivations.
Per the terms of the memorandum of understanding agreed between the U.S. and Rwanda, Rwanda can approve each person who will arrive and will offer additional support.
“Those approved will be provided with workforce training, health care and accommodation support to jump start their lives in Rwanda, giving them the opportunity to contribute to one of the fastest growing economies in the world over the last decade,” Makolo, the government spokesperson, said.
The U.S. and Rwanda began discussing the matter in the early days of the administration, the second Rwandan official said. Kigali has positioned itself as a place for Western countries to send migrants it wants to remove from their countries, though some human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the country’s human rights record, including the country’s repression of dissenters. Rwanda has denied human rights abuses.
The migrant deal comes as the U.S. is mediating a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to help end decades of deadly fighting in eastern Congo that would also help American companies gain access to the region’s critical minerals. The leaders of both countries are expected at the White House later this year to sign the deal.
This would not be the first deal Rwanda has struck to take in deportees from other countries. The U.K. struck a since failed deal with Rwanda in 2022 under which Kigali would accept third-country migrants who arrived in the U.K. through improper channels. Under the scheme, the migrants’ asylum claims would be processed and successful applicants could ultimately stay, but the plan collapsed when Keir Starmer’s Labor government took power and after it was stalled by legal challenges. Rwanda in 2019 also took migrants from Libya who tried to get to Europe and were deported.
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