US Mulls Plan for Deportations to Rwanda

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00:00So if we look at UK, they had signed a migration deal with Rwanda to send asylum seekers here

00:05with the hope of reducing the number of migrants in the UK, but also deterring those who were

00:09hoping to enter the country, particularly illegally. But then there was a lot of controversy

00:13surrounding this deal. And what happened is that when Kiristama came into power,

00:17he described it as dead and buried on arrival. He also termed it as a gimmick. But Jumana,

00:22what's important to note is that this gimmick costed the British taxpayers nearly a billion

00:26dollars. And only four people chose to voluntarily deport themselves. Now U.S. is borrowing

00:32a leave from this book and they're looking for alternative places to deport migrants outside of

00:37El Salvador and countries like Mexico and most recently South Sudan. And that is where Rwanda,

00:42a small East African country, has entered the group chat. It's nearly 14,000 kilometers away from

00:48the U.S. and the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the farther away from the U.S.,

00:54the better, because this is going to deter them from going back to the border. There's also something

00:59to be said about the tone and the language that is being used. He was saying they're going to send

01:04some of the most despicable human beings, raising questions on whether these are asylum seekers or

01:08people with a criminal record. But away from the theatrics of the president's administration,

01:14there's something to be said about how much of a pain point migration really is. If you look at the U.S.

01:18detention centers, space is becoming tight. And also, it's becoming very expensive. That's why

01:23the State Department is looking for alternative places to deport some of these migrants. And it

01:28will not be the first time the U.S. has done this. It's not unlawful, but the morality of it is being

01:33questioned. They've held migrants before in third world countries like Haiti and Cuba as they process

01:38their asylum at a glacial pace until some of them gave up and either went back to their country or

01:43chose to be resettled in other countries. So they've done this before and they're hoping that this time

01:48around, they can do it at a large scale. Yeah. I mean, Rwanda is a country that's very far away

01:55from the U.S. So what do we know about the U.S.-Rwanda proposal?

02:03Jumana, the details right now are very scanty. The government is very tight-lipped about it. But

02:07the Minister of Foreign Affairs has previously said that they're in conversation with the U.S. about this

02:12deal. And it will not be their first rodeo. When they were doing this with the U.K., they had flipped up

02:17hop hostels in Kagugu to hold some of these immigrants that could have been sent into the

02:21country. The government spokesperson had described it as not Babylon, but it was decent enough. It

02:27had a bed, a bedside lamp, a mosquito net, a cafeteria, and also a pool table. But also,

02:34U.S. has tested Rwanda before as a deportation destination. They've sent an Iraqi citizen here

02:41before and sent $100,000 to cover the cost. However, there are questions being raised about

02:46the safety and security of these migrants when they come here. There are questions about the size

02:52of Rwanda, its ability and its infrastructure to absorb refugees at a large scale. And also,

02:57a U.K. court had ruled that there could be risk of refilement of these refugees. But that is not

03:02going to deter President Donald Trump. If this deal goes ahead, the morality of it is not going to matter

03:07because migration is a bigger pain point than the efficacy or the ethics part of it.

03:13For Rwanda, it will be a big win, not only financially but politically, because U.S. is

03:17brokering a peace deal between Rwanda and DRC. And DRC already offered U.S. critical minerals in

03:22exchange for security. So this is something that Rwanda could leverage on.