Rwanda in early talks with US to take expelled migrants
'It is true that we are in discussions with the United States,' Nduhungirehe said in an interview with Rwanda TV, the state broadcaster. 'These talks are still ongoing, and it would be premature to conclude how they will unfold,' he added.
Advertisement
Rwanda's government did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the State Department declined to discuss details of the talks, but said, 'Ongoing engagement with foreign governments is vital to deterring illegal and mass migration and securing our borders.'
Rwanda has long positioned itself as a partner to Western nations seeking to curb migration, offering to provide asylum to migrants or house them as they await resettlement elsewhere, sometimes in return for payment. Nduhungirehe did not say whether Rwanda would be paid for the agreement.
Critics say that sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda is unsafe, citing the country's poor record on human rights, its limited resources, and the authorities' previous intimidation and surveillance of migrants and refugees.
The Trump administration has deployed a number of hard-line tactics to curb migration, including deporting individuals on well-publicized flights. Trump invoked a centuries-old law in March to deport scores of alleged gang members from Venezuela to El Salvador, even as a federal judge sought to halt the flights. Washington has been looking for more countries willing to take in people expelled from the United States.
Advertisement
The Trump administration has also been asking countries to take back their own citizens who have been deported from the United States, and taking punitive measures against those nations that refuse to do so. In early April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked visas for all South Sudanese nationals amid a dispute over the East African country's failure to accept a deported migrant.
If Rwanda agrees to a deal with the Trump administration, it would be the African country's latest agreement to take in migrants.
The small, landlocked nation hosts hundreds of African refugees from Libya awaiting resettlement in a joint partnership with the United Nations refugee agency. It has also signed a deal with Denmark to improve cooperation on asylum and migration, and it entered into a secretive partnership with Israel to receive deported African migrants.
Rwanda agreed to a deal with Britain to receive third-country asylum-seekers in 2022 in a contentious plan that was later deemed unlawful by the British Supreme Court. Last year, the British government passed legislation to override the court's decision and declare Rwanda a 'safe country.'
Only four people voluntarily left for Rwanda under the plan, and when the Conservatives lost the general election last July, the new Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the deal. The program cost British taxpayers 715 million pounds (about $949 million), with some 290 million pounds going to Rwanda. Rwanda's government has said it will not repay the money.
Advertisement
The discussions between Rwanda and the United States were first reported by The Handbasket and coincide with a US effort to mediate a peace deal in the war between Rwanda and neighboring Congo.
The Handbasket and Reuters news agency also reported that the United States deported an Iraqi refugee, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, to Rwanda. Nduhungirehe did not refer to that case during his interview on Rwanda TV.
This article originally appeared in
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
15 minutes ago
- USA Today
Iran holds funeral for commanders and scientists killed in war with Israel
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to Iran state media. June 28 (Reuters) - Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran's capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on June 28 for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month's aerial war with Israel. At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Their coffins were driven into Tehran's Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display. More: Few thought airstrikes could 'obliterate' Iran's nuclear program. Then Trump said they did. Mass prayers were later held in the square. State TV said the funeral, dubbed the "procession of the Martyrs of Power", was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children. In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei's son Mojtaba. "Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honour and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever," Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post. More: The U.S. helped oust an Iranian regime before. Here's what happened in 1953. There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television. Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq. Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Trump threat Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has "no credible indication" of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran. Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on June 28. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on June 29. President Donald Trump said on June 27 that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future U.S. attack by striking U.S. military bases in the Middle East. A senior Israeli military official said on June 27 that Israel had delivered a "major blow" to Iran's nuclear project. On June 28, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the U.S. "failed to achieve their stated objectives" in the war. According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on June 24. More than 4,700 were injured. Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians. Israel's health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he would consider bombing Iran again, drops sanctions relief plan
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, on Friday, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels. Trump reacted sternly to Khamanei's first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids last weekend against Iranian nuclear sites. Khamanei said Iran "slapped America in the face" by launching an attack against a major U.S. base in Qatar following the U.S. bombing raids. Khamanei also said Iran would never surrender. Trump said he had spared Khamanei's life. U.S. officials told Reuters on June 15 that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader. "His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life," Trump said in a social media post. "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH," he said. Iran said a potential nuclear deal was conditional on the U.S. ending its "disrespectful tone" toward the Supreme Leader. "If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X in the early hours of Saturday. Trump also said that in recent days he had been working on the possible removal of sanctions on Iran to give it a chance for a speedy recovery. He said he had now abandoned that effort. "I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more," he said. Trump said at a White House news conference that he did not rule out attacking Iran again, when asked about the possibility of new bombing of Iranian nuclear sites if deemed necessary at some point. "Sure, without question, absolutely," he said. Trump said he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran's nuclear sites after they were bombed last weekend. Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to the sites was not as profound as he has said. The IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on June 13. However, Iran's parliament approved moves on Wednesday to suspend such inspections. Araqchi indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the head of the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites. Trump said Iran still wants to meet about the way forward. The White House had said on Thursday that no meeting between the U.S. and an Iranian delegation has been scheduled thus far.
Boston Globe
19 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
New Englanders clash over Trump's sweeping health reforms
And he is not alone. In a recent Globe survey of 11 New Englanders across the political spectrum, all seven respondents who voted against Trump said they worry that basic health insurance and many vaccines will be harder to obtain for those who need them if the Big Beautiful Bill becomes law. The four respondents who voted for Trump, despite being unfamiliar with many of the legislation's specifics, said they support changes to health care programs to repair what some of them called a broken, bloated system. Advertisement The voters were surveyed as part of an ongoing Globe series on their views on the first year of the Trump administration, with previous installments centered on The cost of health care has been a major focus for Trump, who has said he wants to eliminate waste and fraud from programs such as Medicaid. The president has said he wants the legislation passed before July 4. But along with savings, Trantham noted, many experts predict that more Americans will end up uninsured if Trump's vision becomes the new landscape of national health care. Advertisement 'There will be more people who can't afford their medications. There'll be more people who avoid going to the doctor because they don't have the money,' said Trantham, who is an unenrolled voter and voted for former vice president Kamala Harris in 2024. 'And then they'll end up needing a higher level of medical care, which then puts a broad burden on the rest of us,' he added. Related : Trump's passed by the House, many The agency also predicted that 4 million people could see their access to food stamps reduced or eliminated. In addition to benefit cuts, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the House bill would increase the US deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. And on Thursday, Joann Flaminio, 69, a retired Democrat from Providence, said she is concerned that few people are aware of the myriad dangers tucked into the sprawling bill. 'The devil really is in the details. And one of the proposals in the Big Beautiful Bill — that requires Medicaid recipients to re-enroll every six months — is a draconian measure designed to deny services to those most in need,' said Flaminio, who served as retirement administrator for the state of Rhode Island. Advertisement 'My sister was on Medicaid in the final years of her life, and I know what the application process is like in order to get somebody approved. Many people hire a lawyer in order to do that, but it can be arduous, and it certainly is,' she added. The president's bill also would impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, from ages 19 to 64, who would need to work at least 80 hours per month if they did not qualify for exemptions. From her experience, Flaminio said, linking benefits to work requirements is impractical. 'We tried to mandate work requirements ... for those people who are on disability benefits,' Flaminio said. 'And I would say, for the most part, it's a waste of time and effort. The vast majority of recipients, an estimated 96 percent, cannot work, which is the reason why they apply for Medicaid in the first place.' But for the survey's Trump supporters, trimming the Medicaid rolls is worthwhile if it rids the system of fraud and abuse. Seth Sole-Robertson, a 45-year-old Republican from Medway, was asked if Medicaid cuts concern him. 'I'd be concerned if I was an illegal alien,' Sole-Robertson answered, 'and I'd be concerned if I were committing fraud.' The goal is to strip benefits from 'people who are ineligible or taking it in two different states,' said Sole-Robertson, who owns a marine repair business. 'There's lots of hoopla or fake news about what's going on with Medicaid.' Karen Sysyn, 54, an unenrolled Trump supporter from Londonderry, N.H., said she wasn't sure where the bill was headed or what was in it. 'I hear a lot of rumors that they're looking at cutting Social Security and disability and stuff like that,' she said. Advertisement If people are able to work, taxpayers should not bear their burden, said Sysyn, who is searching for work after losing her job as a housing inspector. But if people are genuinely in need of support from Social Security or Medicare, they should receive support, she added. Another unenrolled Trump supporter, 56-year-old Brian Jankins of Sutton, was asked what he knew about the bill. 'Full disclosure, very little,' said Jankins, who works in banking. However, he added, 'our current health care system is broken and dysfunctional ... I'm not versed in what this bill does to address that, but it is broken.' Related : Respondents' opinions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, also were sharply divided, with Trump supporters endorsing his stance against vaccines, among other initiatives, and the president's opponents saying Kennedy was endangering lives. 'I think more Americans are going to die under some of the changes that he's making around vaccinations,' said Vanessa Coppola, a 42-year-old Democrat from North Yarmouth, Maine. Over the administration's first five months, Kennedy became a lightning rod for controversy because of his antivaccine stance, his references to autism as a preventable disease, and his ouster and replacement of the entire immunization advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coppola, a job coach and consultant, is particularly worried about Kennedy's proposal to eliminate the COVID vaccine recommendation for healthy pregnant women. Those vaccinations provide coverage for newborns, who are particularly vulnerable to respiratory disease, she said. Anand Sharma, 53, a Democrat from Shrewsbury and electrical engineer, called the rolling drama at the Department of Health and Human Services part of 'the chaos [that] is everywhere right now.' Advertisement And Justina Perry, a 37-year-old Democrat from New Bedford, denounced Kennedy's antivaccine agenda. 'Viruses are going to love this,' said Perry, who runs a physical therapy clinic. 'They're going to be able to spread and spread, and they win in this situation because we're pulling back vaccine access. So the only one who should be excited about this is a virus.' But Darryll White, an unenrolled Trump voter from Skowhegan, Maine, supports Kennedy's efforts to change government guidance on vaccines. Kennedy's work is 'a long-haul scenario — to make America healthy again,' said White, 66, who added that efforts by the news media to 'demonize' the secretary have made his job harder. 'People have to understand that Robert Kennedy is under intense pressure,' added White, the director of a nonprofit community park. White said he supports Kennedy's proposal to upend the government's vaccine guidance. 'That's exactly what needs to happen,' said White, who believed the government was not transparent during the pandemic about possible adverse effects of the COVID vaccine. The respondents were sharply divided yet again about the administration's drastic cuts in medical research grants, and those views aligned with whether they had voted for the president. The cuts have had an outsize effect on universities and other research institutions in the Boston area, particularly at Harvard University, where the government has canceled about $2.6 billion in awarded grants. 'He's cutting off his nose to spite his face,' Rosemary Shea, 62, an unenrolled voter from Hampton, N.H., said of Trump, who she voted against. 'I mean, Harvard is not just doing this research for themselves. They're doing it for the world.' Advertisement 'These universities are doing great research for diseases that are still out there that we have not cracked yet — Parkinson's, cancer, all different types of cancers," Shea added. 'He's just decided 'nope.' And I haven't even heard a logical explanation for it.' Sole-Robertson, the Medway Republican, offered a sharply different take on the government's role in funding medical research. 'A lot of this needs to be shifted back to private industry and raising funds in the private sector,' he said. 'I think a lot of it is just pure nonsense.' Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at
