The central African country of Rwanda will accept up to 250 migrants deported from the US.
As news agency Reuters reported on August 4, a deal between the two countries was signed already in June 2025 in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
An unnamed Rwandan official said the US had already submitted a list of 10 individuals for initial vetting. Rwandan authorities have the right to review and approve each case individually before the actual resettlement.
The country will only take in migrants who have completed their prison sentences and no child-sex offenders or people facing criminal charges. Rwanda will receive payment through a grant, although the amount has not been disclosed.
The agreement followed a ruling by the US Supreme Court which allowed the administration of US President Donald Trump to deport migrants to third countries without giving them a chance to show they might be in danger there.
Trump has vowed to deport millions of illegal migrants from the US.
Rwandan Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said: “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.”
The migrants would receive workforce training, healthcare and accommodation “to jumpstart their lives in Rwanda, giving them the opportunity to contribute to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world”, Makolo continued.
Rwanda has accepted illegal migrants from other nations in the past. Between 2019 and 2025, the country took in 2,760 refugees and asylum seeker evacuated from Libya, according to local newspaper New Times.
Most of these migrants, though – primarily people from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria – were later relocated to European countries.
The agreement with the US came barely a year after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Labour) cancelled an agreement between Rwanda and this country from 2022 in which the African nation agreed to take in thousands of asylum seekers.
In an ironic twist of fate, the migrants deported from the US will now be housed in apartment complexes originally built for the UK asylum seekers.
According to British newspaper The Times on August 4, the scrapped deportation scheme cost British taxpayers about £700 million (€800 million).
The amount included payments to the Rwandan Government as well as the costs of construction of accommodation blocks in the country, the chartering of unused flights and the salaries of more than 1,000 civil servants who worked on the programme.
