Rwanda will receive some 500 refugees stranded in Libya as part of commitment made by President Paul Kagame’s government in 2017 to help ease the migrant crisis in the North African country.

Authorities in the country said in November 2017 that they would work on a plan with Libyan authorities to have some 30,000 migrants taken to the East African country. This was in response to reports of stranded migrants being tortured and sold as slaves by human traffickers.

“Rwanda is currently under discussions… to see how we can help in welcoming migrants held captive in Libya,” foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said at the time.

Nearly two years on, Rwanda is making good on its promise, with a starting evacuation of 500 migrants.

“We are talking at this time of up to 500 refugees from Libya,” The New Times local newspaper quotes Diyana Gitera, the Director General for Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Gitera said dates for the arrival of the migrants into Rwanda would be communicated later.

Libya has bore a major brunt of the migrant crisis involving countries with access to the Mediterranean Sea.

Human trafficking cells have operated within the country for years, taking advantage of the crisis there. The country became a favoured departing point for migrants seeking to reach Europe by making the precarious sea crossing.

Tens of thousands of the migrants however remain stuck in the country as the human trafficking cells do not fulfil their promise to help the cross the Mediterranean. Others were also arrested and remain in detention camps across the country, most of which are said to be in pathetic states.

The African Union in 2017 urged its members to help the situation by taking in the migrants into their borders.

“I appeal to all member states of the African Union, the African private sector and African citizens to make financial contributions to help alleviate the suffering of African migrants in Libya,” AUC chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said in November 2017. “I urge member states that have logistical means to make them available to facilitate the evacuation of African migrants who wish to leave Libya.”

It is not clear however whether Rwanda will still be able take in the 30,000 migrants as it pledged earlier.