As the UK presses on with its asylum deal, refugees sent from Israel to Rwanda describe their experiences.
The BBC has spoken to a number of former asylum seekers who were sent to Rwanda from Israel. They all took part in the scheme between 2014 and 2016 and have since settled in Europe. Separately, we are aware of at least one similar case living in the UK. Others interviewed by migration experts have given similar accounts.
But with no work or documentation, they say they needed to keep moving - joining the well-worn migration routes across Africa and the Mediterranean to reach Europe."[When you are told] to pay this and to go, of course you do what you are told." Tesfay Gush, an Eritrean who arrived in Rwanda in February 2015, believes the Rwandan officials and traffickers were working in tandem.
"[A]nyone found to have breached our laws of ethical standards will be held to account. The Rwandan government makes the safety of its people, and anyone who comes to our country, its top priority, and that includes refugees and economic migrants."Bahabelom eventually arrived in Greece on a small boat and travelled over land to Switzerland. Now settled in Zurich, he is about to take his final exam to become a qualified plumber.
"Publicly, the transfer schemes were presented as providing Sudanese and Eritreans with a stable future in Rwanda or Uganda," says Dr Gidrom, of the refugee studies at Oxford University. "But it quickly became clear that Israel's promises of a legal status, rights, and livelihoods in these countries were merely hot air.
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