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00:00 Some of the first UK asylum seekers deported to Rwanda will be housed at the Hope Hostel
00:04 in the Kagagou neighbourhood of Kigali.
00:07 During a 2022 media tour, the hotel was undergoing renovations but put its best foot forward
00:12 for the press.
00:13 "We are able to host 100 people.
00:17 We have 50 rooms.
00:20 They are permitted to go out as they want.
00:22 It's not a prison, it's an area of location."
00:26 For him, of course, the controversial scheme is a chance to fill his rooms to the tune
00:30 of 70 euros per day per migrant.
00:33 The hostel was built to house Tutsi orphans of the Rwandan genocide, around 20 of whom
00:37 were still living here when the deal was announced.
00:41 "Most of the orphans were students.
00:44 We went to the hotel to find refrigerant during our studies.
00:47 We were given money to live but it's not enough to cover our needs over a year when it comes
00:52 to buying food and other equipment.
00:54 We are going to have to go back to our miserable old life.
00:57 There is nothing left for us.
00:58 Tomorrow I will be chased off the street and I will return to the bush where I survived
01:02 before coming to this hotel."
01:06 Kigali has denied any expulsions though, maintaining that it was a matter of students becoming
01:10 older and independent and has such no longer government responsibility.
01:14 Authorities say they are ready to receive 500 migrants across three hotels initially,
01:19 some of whom will then be integrated into the wider population.
01:21 "The programme is clear.
01:24 People have to live with Rwandans at some point.
01:28 So they are there to find out who is a migrant, who is a refugee, who wants to return home.
01:33 After this procedure, they will have to be disseminated among the population."
01:40 Rwanda has already taken in people evacuated from Libya under an agreement signed with
01:44 the High Commissioner for Refugees and the African Union.
01:47 The UK scheme though will be entirely financed by the British taxpayer who have already paid
01:52 Kigali 278 million euros before the deportations have begun.