Rwanda Receives 7 US Deportees as Cash‑Grant Deal Could Reach 250

Kigali, 1 September 2025 – On a humid August evening in Kigali, seven exhausted passengers stepped off an unmarked plane. They were the first migrants deported from the United States under a controversial agreement that could see up to 250 people sent to Rwanda. To the Rwandan government, these arrivals are proof that it is “ready to take them,” with promises of job training and healthcare. Yet behind the official reassurances lie human lives upended by policies hammered out thousands of miles away.

“We want to go home – or build new lives”

According to government spokesperson Yolande Makolo, of the seven deportees who quietly arrived in mid-August, three immediately requested to return to their home countries. At the same time, four said they would try to build lives in Rwanda, Makolo insisted that all seven had been vetted and would receive “training, healthcare, and accommodation support to jump‑start their lives.” For now, they are housed by an international organisation, with visits from local social services and the International Organization for Migration.

Those assurances are cold comfort to people whose identities have been kept secret. The deportees are not Rwandan and have no connection to the country. They are essentially stranded, dependent on a government that treats them like a foreign policy asset.

A secretive bargain – with cash attached

The Rwandan government has been vague about the deal’s terms, saying only that it signed an agreement with the Trump administration in June 2025. However, reporting by Radio France Internationale reveals that the pact includes a US cash grant. An unnamed Rwandan official told Reuters that Washington sent a list of ten people to vet and that the grant letter was signed in July. Makolo framed the agreement as an altruistic gesture, saying, “nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement.”

Not everyone is buying that narrative. Phil Clark, a Rwanda expert at SOAS University, notes that the US originally dangled the deportation scheme as leverage over Rwanda’s role in peace talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the cash reveals a more transactional motive. “Now it shows that Rwanda will also profit financially from this scheme,” he told RFI. Rwanda has already pocketed hundreds of thousands of pounds from Britain’s now‑scrapped asylum deal, and Clark says this arrangement cements a disturbing trend: richer nations paying African states to offload migrants.

A Rwandan activist who asked to remain anonymous put it bluntly: “The deal comes down to money and political influence. Accepting these deportees also gives Rwanda an advantage in the ongoing peace negotiations regarding the conflict in DRC”

“The whole scheme stinks.”

Rwanda is not alone. Uganda, Eswatini, and South Sudan have also agreed to take US deportees, often under opaque conditions. In Uganda, the lack of parliamentary approval has angered many. Opposition lawmaker Ibrahim Ssemujju joked bitterly that President Museveni “will be asking, ‘When are you bringing them?’”. Mathias Mpuuga, former leader of Uganda’s opposition, decried the arrangement outright: “The whole scheme stinks”. Other Ugandans noted that the country already struggles to host refugees fleeing neighbouring conflicts.