The development was confirmed on Friday 9th September 2022 as Danish Immigration Minister, Kaare Dybvad and the country’s Minister for Development and Nordic Cooperation, Flemming Møller Mortensen visited Rwanda.
During their visit, the Danish officials held talks with Rwandan counterparts focusing on the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on asylum and migration issues.
Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vincent Biruta has said that Rwanda and Denmark began talks in April 2021 regarding efforts to deal with issues of migrants and asylum seekers which remain a burden for European countries while putting at risk the lives of those people trying to resettle in Europe.
“We agreed with Denmark to work together to find a durable solution for the issue of trafficked asylum seekers. As of today, we already have the agreements’ framework but we are having deep discussions on all aspects: Who are the targeted people, what does it require, how they will be resettled, what will happen once they arrive […] these are part of ongoing discussions,” he said.
Both parties have agreed to open joint office in Kigali to ensure effectiveness of the agreements where two diplomats will be assigned to follow up on the issue day to day.
As Rwanda signed agreements to receive asylum seekers from the United Kingdom (UK) in April this year, critics arose from different people and organizations claiming that they won’t be treated decently.
This time around, Dr. Biruta said that they will engage different organizations for common understanding.
“We committed ourselves to talk to international organizations overseeing interests of refugees […] to get common understanding on how the issue of asylum seekers […] If the usual system of handling them cannot work, what can we do to establish a new and effective mechanism to solve problems?” he wondered.
Minister Biruta also revealed that people against the arrangement ignore the truth willingly because they have worked with Rwanda on similar schemes which succeeded.
“These issues are being raised nowadays in relation to UK Migration and Economic Development Partnership but were not voiced when we received migrants and asylum seekers from Libya. Those issues were not raised when we received over 130,000 refugees from neighbouring countries including Burundi, DRC and elsewhere,” he stated.
“Because there are some people against the deal, they started accusing Rwanda of being unsafe claiming that it harasses opponents and so forth. […] These people are against the new system. That is why they will bring anything to tamper with the partnership,” added Dr. Biruta.
The Danish Immigration Minister, Kaare Dybvad also expressed optimism that the partnership with Rwanda will yield good results.
Denmark is among countries that have been receiving asylum seekers and migrants accommodated in Rwanda, particularly the ones deported the East African country from Libya.
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