Asylum seekers sent to Rwanda for processing as part of a new plan announced this morning by the Home Office will stay in a hostel in the country’s capital called “Hope House”.
It is understood the Rwandan government will initially be paid £120m under the deal, which will be funded by the British taxpayer.
Part of this funding will go towards housing asylum seekers in Hope House, located in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of Kigali.
On Thursday, the media were taken to the building.
Following a visit to Hope House, home secretary Priti Patel said in a press conference that the hostels were “ready to operationalise”.
She said the Rwandan government were responsible for explaining the details, but the two governments had been working together on the logistics.
The hostel’s 50 rooms can fit up to two people per room, and the people staying there will share communal bathrooms.
It is not known how rooms will be arranged for larger families.
More accommodation blocks are planned, as authorities hope to expand the compound to 150 rooms which could hold 300 guests.
Asylum seekers are expected to receive three meals a day in a shared dining room, with a kitchen available for those with dietary restrictions.
Anyone who arrives in the UK without documentation could be flown out to Rwanda to stay at Hope House.
On Thursday, the Home Office made a commitment to provide safe and clean accommodation, food, healthcare and amenities. They asserted that asylum seekers flown to Rwanda will have access to translators, as well as legal support to appeal decisions made in Rwanda’s courts.
They pledged that asylum seekers would not be detained.
Critics have condemned the choice of Rwanda as a destination for asylum seekers trying to enter the UK, citing concerns about human rights abuses.
Sonya Sceats, chief executive at Freedom from Torture, said the plans were “deeply disturbing” and should “horrify anybody with a conscience”.
“Australia’s experiment with offshore processing camps became a hotbed of human rights abuses, where sexual abuse of women and children was rife,” she said.
“It is even more dismaying that the UK government has agreed this deal with a state known to practice torture, as we know from the many Rwandan torture survivors we have treated over the years.”
