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Refugee from Eritrea, now 29, tells of his fear he will end up being sent to Rwanda for a second time under UK deportation scheme, years after he says Israel sent him there ‘to get rid of us’

Kidane paid smugglers to help him travel by dinghy from Calais to the UK (

Image: AFP via Getty Images)

By Laura Connor 23:02, 25 Jun 2022

Kidane was 18 when he fled his home country of Eritrea to seek asylum in Israel. But, in a cruel scheme which experts say inspired the UK’s deportation plan, he was flown to Rwanda with the promise of a new life.

Kidane – not his real name – crossed Africa and Europe to get here but could now be sent back to Rwanda.

Speaking from his asylum centre in Cardiff, Kidane, 29, said: “To be deported to Rwanda would be a huge threat to my life. I’d do the whole journey again and I might not survive it again. We’ve been treated like cattle, not humans. The UK wants to get rid of all refugees and asylum seekers.”

Kidane is one of more than 60,000 Eritrean and Sudanese refugees who fled dictatorship and war in their homelands to start a new life in Israel.

In 2016, after months in a desert prison camp, he was told he would be deported back to Eritrea or imprisoned indefinitely unless he went to Rwanda. He was flown to Rwandan capital Kigali via Turkey with a $3,500 settlement grant.

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Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned the Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Israeli officials said he could apply for asylum in Rwanda, where he could get a job and be protected.

He says: “When we arrived in Kigali, we had our permits and visas taken away before being sent to a hotel surrounded by security.

“We stayed there for three weeks not knowing what was happening, when immigration officers arrived to take us over the border to Uganda. We had to pay them $150 for the trip and a further $150 to get to Kampala.

“The Israeli government knew what they were doing and used this as a way to get rid of us – and that is exactly what the UK government is doing.”

Accommodation in Kigali, Rwanda, where migrants from Britain are expected to be taken ( Image: REUTERS)

From Uganda, Kidane fled to South Sudan, where militiamen attacked his convoy, killing four of his friends. He was then held in a South Sudanese jail, where he narrowly avoided being shot as civil war raged around him.

Kidane decided to bribe his way out after seeing those who couldn’t pay being killed, beaten and raped. From Libya, he went by boat to Italy, spent four years in Germany, then paid smugglers to take him in a dinghy from Calais to the UK to try to reach his brother – his only family in Europe.

Kidane said our Rwanda policy will not deter migrants like him “who are so full of hopelessness”.

Professor Galia Sabar, of Tel Aviv University, who worked with Eritrean refugees like Kidane, called it “cruel, dangerous and truly racist”. “It is based on ignorance,” she said. “You cannot justify it. This policy is like sending this man to his death. I see no difference between Israel’s policy and the UK’s.”

A view of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which is expected to take asylum seekers from the UK (

Image: REUTERS)

Israel axed its scheme after sending 4,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uganda between 2013 and 2018. Martin Plaut, of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, said: “The way Israeli refugees were treated by Rwanda indicates it is a completely unsuitable place to send refugees.

“The authorities simply trade people across the border. The UK’s scheme will mean they have to do the whole journey again, through smugglers, human trafficking, incarceration and potentially a death sentence. It’s a ruthless, vicious cycle.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The disturbing stories show why Israel abandoned this policy. We have said from the beginning the Rwanda deal is unworkable, unethical and extortionately expensive. This is more evidence why the Government should concentrate on stopping the criminal gangs who operate in the Channel instead.”

The Home Office said: “Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers, a thorough assessment is undertaken to ensure no one would be transferred there if it was not safe.”

EU Should Press Ethiopia for Tangible Rights Progress

Today’s Brussels talks have got Ethiopia worried and they mobilised their diaspora, who have appealed to the EU not to increase sanctions against the Addis government.

Twelve Ethiopian Organizations wrote a letter to the European Parliament objecting to draft resolution (2021/2206 INI). [See below] They rejected the use of “Western Tigray” arguing that it is a Tigrayan term. And they are particularly worried about suggestions that there should be “an urgent deployment of an AU-led international peacekeeping force with a robust civilian protection mandate to Western Tigray,” to help end the war.

Clearly there are major sensitivities for all concerned, but the EU has been silent on the war in Tigray for far too long. Brussels needs to come up with a robust proposal that will support the AU/Kenyan mediation efforts to bring this tragic conflict to an end.

Government Should Ensure Access to Aid; End Arbitrary Detentions

The future of European Union engagement in Ethiopia will be high on the agenda of EU foreign ministers gathering next Monday in Brussels. This meeting takes place 19 months into an armed conflict originating in the northern Tigray region that has been devastating for the civilian population.

The Ethiopian government in February lifted a state of emergency used to arbitrarily arrest thousands of Tigrayans, and since April has permitted greater numbers of aid convoys to enter Tigray. Still, abuses and suffering remain rife in northern Ethiopia. For nearly a year, the government has maintained an effective siege of Tigray, limiting food, fuel, and other critical supplies while also shutting off communications, banking, and electricity. While more aid has been allowed in, the amount remains far less than the population’s needs. The lack of drug supplies and services in particular means that people with chronic illnesses, along with survivors of abuses, including wartime sexual violence, do not have essential care.

Human Rights Watch in April released a report with Amnesty International documenting an ethnic cleansing campaign against Tigrayans by officials and security forces from the neighboring Amhara region. While the authorities restrict access to rights monitors and aid agencies, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Tigrayans are arbitrarily detained there in life-threatening conditions.

In a May 26 letter to the EU and member states, Human Rights Watch called for clear human rights benchmarks to underpin relations with the Ethiopian government. These include ending mass arbitrary detentions and allowing independent monitors’ access to detainees, the restoration of basic services, and unhindered and safe humanitarian access throughout conflict-affected areas.

There has been no meaningful accountability for war crimes and other serious abuses committed in Amhara, Tigray, and neighboring Afar regions. Government investigative processes and outcomes lack transparency, and international investigations continue to be hampered.

Federal authorities have for years conducted mass arrests and prolonged arbitrary detentions in Oromia, and have more recently detained thousands in Amhara.

For EU pressure to carry weight, the focus needs to be on ending harm to civilians. Diplomatic engagement and access with Ethiopia’s government should not be an end in itself, but a tool to achieve tangible progress in protecting civilians countrywide.

As the world watches the EU take robust measures against those responsible for war crimes elsewhere in the world, it shouldn’t settle for less in the Horn of Africa.