Somali refugees Abdulbasit and Zainab relax in their temporary home at the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Nyamata, Rwanda. © UNHCR/Will Swanson
In Rwanda, UN High Commissioner for Refugees visits facility providing safe route out of Libya for refugees and asylum-seekers, including Somali couple who faced detention and abuse
When Abdulbasit, his wife Zainab, and their daughter were first evacuated from Libya to Rwanda in 2019, they were unsure what to expect. The couple had been through a harrowing ordeal. On their journey to find safety, the refugees from Somalia found themselves stuck in Libya, where they faced horrific abuse in detention.
“When we got to Libya, we were worried about being in detention and never having freedom,” said Zainab. “I had heard that Rwanda was a safe place, and they were welcoming refugees.”
The couple and their daughter, who was born in Libya, were some of the first refugees and asylum-seekers to be evacuated to Rwanda under a life-saving humanitarian mechanism established nearly two years ago by the Rwandan government, the African Union and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, supported by international donors such as the European Union.
They were brought to the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Gashora, Rwanda, where UNHCR provided them with accommodation, food, water, medical care, psychosocial support, and language classes.
“I had heard that Rwanda was a safe place.”
Since that initial flight, some 515 refugees and asylum-seekers have been evacuated from Libya to the ETM. The group remains at the transit facility while long-term solutions are sought. From the group, so far at least 260 refugees and asylum-seekers have been resettled to countries including Canada, France and Norway.
