Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an estimate of the number of refugees relocated to Rwanda via resettlement schemes from other countries.

In October 2023, Rwanda hosted 135,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Rwanda hosts the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM), which facilitates the temporary evacuation of refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya. By September 2023, 1,737 refugees and asylum seekers had arrived in Rwanda under the ETM. Once in Rwanda, the UNHCR registers and verifies the refugees and asylum seekers and determines their refugee status. Rwanda currently hosts 698 refugees and asylum seekers under this scheme, pending resettlement in third countries. They also have the option of returning to their home countries or staying and integrating in Rwanda, although no refugees have chosen this so far.

We are also aware from open source reporting of refugees from Afghanistan and Sudan who have successfully resettled in Rwanda, including:

a) The entire student body of the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), a girls' boarding school which relocated from Kabul to Rwanda after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Nearly 250 members of the SOLA community, including all 100 students, arrived in Rwanda. More Afghan students continue to arrive and live/stay at the school in Rwanda each year.

b) Sudan's University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) relocated to Rwanda because of civil war in its home country. The UMST plans to transfer over 7,000 students to Rwanda. So far, 280 students have arrived in Kigali, been granted student visas, and are continuing their studies.