Rwanda and some European nations are holding migration talks, Kigali\u2019s spokesperson said Friday, a week after dramatic scenes of thousands crossing the Morocco-Spain border reignited the migration debate in Europe.<\/p>\n
In June European lawmakers approved tougher migration rules, notably enabling nations to open \u201creturn hubs\u201d outside the EU\u2019s borders, where migrants with no right to stay could be sent.<\/p>\n
Kigali government spokesperson Yolande Makolo, asked specifically about an agreement with Italy by Rwanda\u2019s Royal FM radio station, said that while discussions were ongoing, there was \u201cno agreement yet\u201d.<\/p>\n
The broad talks were around an \u201cemergency transit mechanism\u201d, said Makolo.<\/p>\n
Rwanda could provide \u201ca safe place for families who are stranded\u2026 have nowhere else to go or in danger for various reasons\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n
She said the families could either return to their countries of origin or be resettled in another nation after applying for asylum.<\/p>\n
Makolo later confirmed to AFP that they had had \u201csome initial discussions with some European countries but nothing has been decided\u201d.<\/p>\n
The talks referred to Rwanda\u2019s \u201cgeneral approach and experience on the migration issue\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n
These latest talks echo an agreement the Great Lakes nation reached with the United Kingdom under the former Conservative government but subsequently scrapped by its successor.<\/p>\n
Under that deal, Rwanda had agreed to take migrants who had arrived in Britain via \u201cdangerous or illegal journeys\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also comes following last week\u2019s scenes when tens of thousands of people crossed into Spain\u2019s north African enclave of Ceuta, which borders Morocco.<\/p>\n
Although most of those who made the crossing subsequently returned to Morocco, the affair prompted calls by right-wing European leaders for tougher border controls.<\/p>\n
Rwanda is among the African countries to have agreed to receive people deported from the United States, reportedly in exchange for a million-dollar aid deal, according to Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
The deal with the United Kingdom to send undocumented migrants to Rwanda was scrapped after Labour replaced the Conservative administration there.<\/p>\n
Kigali recently lost a $135-million court challenge over that decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rwanda and some European nations are holding migration talks, Kigali\u2019s spokesperson said Friday, a week after dramatic scenes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15,344,29739],"class_list":["post-111618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-european","tag-international","tag-mna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}