Rwanda received 174 asylum seekers evacuated from Libya by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday, the ministry in charge of emergency management has said.
The latest group of asylum seekers is made up of six nationalities, with the majority from Eritrea and Sudan, who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores from Libya, the ministry said in a brief statement.
“We urge countries to provide more legal pathways to help vulnerable asylum seekers find safety out of Libya,” the UNHCR said.
The asylum seekers stayed at the transit facility in eastern Rwanda pending durable solutions to their predicament.
Available options for them include resettlement to a third country, voluntary return to countries where they had previously been granted asylum, their countries of origin whenever deemed safe, or integration in Rwandan communities, according to the UN refugee agency.
The transit center in Rwanda was set up under an agreement reached between the Rwandan government, the UNHCR and the African Union. Enditem
