Norway this year will take in 600 people evacuated to Rwanda from Libyan detention centers, the Nordic country said on Wednesday as it sought to discourage the smuggling of refugees across the Mediterranean Sea.

This was revealed by Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Vincent Biruta at a news conference on Wednesday, his first media briefing as government spokesperson.

According to Biruta, Rwanda is hosting over 300 refugees and asylum seekers at the Gashora Transit Centre, and they are of different nationalities, mainly from the Horn of African countries of Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea.

Biruta said that, so far, countries that have sought to make an intervention in the situation are Norway and Sweden.

He revealed that Sweden has already taken in seven refugees from Rwanda.

Norway, on the other hand, could take up to 500 refugees from Rwanda’s transit mechanism, according to Biruta.

As part of an agreement signed in September last year, Rwanda set up a transit mechanism to host up to 500 refugees from Libya at a time.

The deal was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between the Government, the African Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Rwanda provides a safe pathway for refugees, asylum-seekers and other persons in need of protection who are currently trapped in Libya or face serious protection risks.

According to the terms of the agreement, the mechanism is established to temporarily host evacuees for their stay in Rwanda, while durable solutions, including repatriation and resettlement, are being identified.

Source: New Times Rwanda