CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Rwanda has become the third African nation to receive deportees from the United States as the Trump administration expands its program to send migrants to countries they have no ties with.
A Rwandan government spokesperson said Thursday that seven deportees arrived in the East African country earlier this month. No announcement was made at the time.
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FILE - Matsapha Correctional Complex is seen in Matsapha, near Mbabane, Eswatini, Thursday July 17, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Rwandan President Paul Kagame, left, and his wife, first lady Jeannette Kagame arrive for a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, held at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, in Kigali, Rwanda, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
FILE - Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers on a street of Kampala, Uganda, on July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters as he meets with Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Rwanda did say in early August that it had agreed to take up to 250 deportees but declined then to say when the first would arrive.
Two other African nations, South Sudan and Eswatini, have already accepted a small number of deportees from the U.S. in what have also been secretive deals, while Uganda said last week it has an agreement in principle to take deportees.
Here's what we know about the deportations of migrants from the U.S.
Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the seven deportees are being visited by representatives from the United Nations' migration agency and Rwandan social services.
Three of them want to return to their home countries while the other four “wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda,” she said. The Rwandan government didn’t say where the deportees are being held.
There was no information on their identities, nationalities or if they have criminal records.
Deportees previously sent to South Sudan and Eswatini were all described by U.S. authorities as dangerous criminals.
Rwanda’s deal with the U.S. follows a contentious migrant agreement it reached with the U.K. in 2022 that collapsed and was ruled unlawful by Britain’s Supreme Court. That deal was meant to see people seeking asylum in the U.K. sent to Rwanda, where they would stay if their asylum applications were approved.
Uganda, which borders Rwanda, said it would accept deportees from the U.S. as long as they don't have criminal records or are unaccompanied minors.
The U.S. has said it wants to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a flashpoint in U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, to Uganda.
Like the other countries, Uganda didn't give any other details of its deal with the U.S. or what it might gain from accepting deported migrants. African nations might get a range of benefits for accepting deportees and improving their relations with the Trump administration.
“We are sacrificing human beings for political expediency, in this case because Uganda wants to be in the good books of the United States,” Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opio said when his country announced it was seeking a deal with the U.S.
The U.S. sent eight men from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in July after their deportations were held up by a legal challenge. That led to them being kept for weeks in a converted shipping container at an American military base in nearby Djibouti.
U.S. officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the U.S.
South Sudan's government said it would ensure their “safety and well-being” but has declined to say where the men are being held and what their fate might be.
South Sudan has been wracked by conflict since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and is teetering on the edge of civil war again.
Two weeks after the South Sudan deportations, the U.S. announced that it had sent five other men — citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos — to the small kingdom of Eswatini, in southern Africa.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security described them as violent criminals whose home countries had refused to take them back.
Eswatini’s government said the men would be held in solitary confinement until their repatriation, and later said that might take up to a year.
A human rights lawyer in Eswatini has taken the authorities to court alleging the men are being denied legal representation while being held in a maximum-security prison.
Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. King Mswati III has ruled since he turned 18 in 1986 and authorities under him are accused of violently subduing pro-democracy movements.
AP news on the Trump administration: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
FILE - Matsapha Correctional Complex is seen in Matsapha, near Mbabane, Eswatini, Thursday July 17, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Rwandan President Paul Kagame, left, and his wife, first lady Jeannette Kagame arrive for a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, held at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, in Kigali, Rwanda, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
FILE - Drivers of motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, ride with passengers on a street of Kampala, Uganda, on July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters as he meets with Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
