The Rwandan government will Tuesday sign an agreement to host 500 immigrants from Libya, according to an official statement obtained Monday by APA in Kigali.
The deal will be signed in Kigali between the Government, the African Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Rwandan Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement.
It said that move follows a commitment by the government in 2017 to host African immigrants trapped in Libya, as European nations stepped up migrant controls.
In 2017, Rwandan Government made the commitment following damning revelations that tens of thousands of people from across Africa were not only stranded in Libya after their failed bid to reach Europe but many of them were being subjected to slavery.
It is expected that Rwanda will start receiving the immigrants under an emergency plan it discussed with international humanitarian agencies and other partners.
The immigrants are expected to arrive in the coming days, the statement said.
The United Nations estimates that almost 5,000 migrants are in detention in Libya, about 70 per cent of whom are refugees and asylum seekers, with most of them having been subjected to different forms of abuse.
Thousands of migrants are being held in government-run detention centres in Libya, according to humanitarian agencies in the Northern Africa region.
Scores have died over the past few years while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European countries in hope for better lives.
CU/abj/APA