![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/what-happened-when-israel-sent-its-refugees-to-rwanda/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/125577400_1200-switzerland.jpg&description=Image source, BBC / Derrick Evans Image caption, Bahabelom Mengesha, who now lives in Zurich, was sent to Rwanda by Israel in 2014 As the UK presses on with its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the BBC has heard evidence that, as recently as 2017, refugees despatched there by Israel were rapidly deported and are now in Europe. Bahabelom Mengesha, a 36-year-old Eritrean man, knows what it's like to be sent to Rwanda by another country. But his stay there as an asylum seeker was brief. He had left post-war Eritrea in 2010 and moved to Israel to claim asylum. Four years later, his permit was revoked and he was given a choice - be sent home, go to a migrant detention facility, or take $3,500 and a one-way flight to Rwanda. It felt like no choice at all, he told the BBC, from Switzerland, where he has been living for the past seven years. "No sane person would voluntarily go to prison," says Bahabelom of detention in Israel. "To go back to Eritrea, where imprisonment is part of the culture, this was [also] no option." But Bahabelom soon found out he wasn't welcome in the east African country. No sooner had he landed in its capital, Kigali, than he was told he must leave again for neighbouring Uganda - and all for a fee. It is not clear who was orchestrating his expulsion from Rwanda - and that of other migrants we have spoken to - but Bahabelom believes Rwandan officials were involved. Rwanda's status as a safe destination for refugees has been questioned, after the UK signed a deal with the country to house asylum seekers who had landed on its shores. Western nations have issued warnings about its human rights record . Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The UK government had a plane ready to take asylum seekers to Rwanda earlier this month However, there are key differences between the UK's deal with the country and Israel's. Israel's "voluntary departure" scheme presented the flight to Rwanda as a choice, whereas the UK's scheme is compulsory. And unlike t){kind=link}
As the UK presses on with its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the BBC has heard evidence that, as recently as 2017, refugees despatched there by Israel were rapidly deported and are now in Europe.
Bahabelom Mengesha, a 36-year-old Eritrean man, knows what it’s like to be sent to Rwanda by another country. But his stay there as an asylum seeker was brief.
He had left post-war Eritrea in 2010 and moved to Israel to claim asylum. Four years later, his permit was revoked and he was given a choice – be sent home, go to a migrant detention facility, or take $3,500 and a one-way flight to Rwanda.
It felt like no choice at all, he told the BBC, from Switzerland, where he has been living for the past seven years.
“No sane person would voluntarily go to prison,” says Bahabelom of detention in Israel. “To go back to Eritrea, where imprisonment is part of the culture, this was [also] no option.”