UNHCR / RWANDA LIBYA EVACUEES

Rwanda welcomes first group of refugees evacuated to safety on a charter flight from Libya where they faced detention, the threat of trafficking and even death in attempts to cross the Mediterranean. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:24
• Production Date: 27 September 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES
• Geographic Subject: LIBYA; RWANDA
• MAMS Id: 2458448
• Parent Id: 2458448
• Alternate Title: unifeed190927j

Description

STORY: UNHCR / RWANDA LIBYA EVACUEES
TRT: 3:24
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SOMALI / NATS

DATELINE: 26 SEPTEMBER 2019, GASHORA, BUGESERA DISTRICT, RWANDA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, plane carrying refugees from Libya parked on runway
2. Med shot, refugees walk from plane
3. Wide shot, woman with small baby among refugees walking from plane
4. Wide shot, refugees walk into airport arrivals entry
5. Wide shot, refugees inside airport
6. Close up, refugee’s hands hold documents
7. Med shot, UNHCR staff speaking with refugee at airport
8. Med shot, Zainab Yousef carrying her baby
9. Close up, baby
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdelbaset Mohamed, Somali Refugee:
“I am feeling happy in Rwanda, but I have a wife and baby and in Libya I have not left with anything but I feel happy in Rwanda.”
11. Wide shot, refugees walking to enter bus / UNHCR staff hands out information pamphlets
12. Med shot, refugees waiting to enter bus
13. Med shot, Somali refugee, Zainab gets on the bus with her baby
14. Close up, refugee reads information pamphlet
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmed Baba Fall, UNHCR Representative in Rwanda:
“This is a fantastic gesture of solidarity with refugees from the people and the government of Rwanda. It is also an example of African leadership that I hope many other countries will follow. This demonstration of solidarity and responsibility sharing will save a lot of lives and will give hope to many refugees who are still stranded in Libya.”
16. Med shot, refugees get on the bus / UNHCR staff shares information
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Kayumba, Permanent Secretary, Rwanda’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA):
“Even if we are a small country but we have enough capacity, we cannot say that since the country is small, we cannot get more refugees. We have 149,000, we are getting more and more, no problem.”
18.Wide shot, bus carrying refugees to Rwanda’s new Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) facility leave the airport
19. Med shot, refugees get off bus at ETM
20.Me shot, Zainab with her baby get off bus / sign on bus reading “Welcome to Rwanda”
21. Wide shot, Mayor of Bugesera district, Richard Mutabazi welcomes refugees with an embrace
22.Med shot, UNHCR staff verify details of newly arrived refugees
23. Close up, refugee’s face
24. Med shot, Zainab and Abdelbaset play with their baby in their room at the ETM
25. Close up, baby
26. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Zainab Yousef, Somali Refugee:
“We thank God. We cannot explain the life back there in Libya. There is fighting and we couldn’t even sleep peacefully at night. Now, we feel safe.”
27. Wide shot, UNHCR staff with Zainab and her family at ETM

Storyline

Rwanda welcomes first group of refugees evacuated to safety on a charter flight from Libya where they faced detention, the threat of trafficking and even death in attempts to cross the Mediterranean.

Relieved but exhausted, 66 refugees evacuated from detention centers in Libya arrived in Rwanda late on Thursday (26 Sep). They are the first to benefit from a newly announced Emergency Transit Mechanism, an agreement between the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the
African Union to move refugees most at risk in Libya to the safety of a facility in Gashora, a district some 60 km from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. The group are predominantly from the Horn of Africa, including women, children and youth at risk.

SOUNDBITE (English) Abdelbaset Mohamed, Somali Refugee:
“I am feeling happy in Rwanda, but I have a wife and baby and in Libya I have not left with anything but I feel happy in Rwanda.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmed Baba Fall, UNHCR Representative in Rwanda:
“This is a fantastic gesture of solidarity with refugees from the people and the government of Rwanda. It is also an example of African leadership that I hope many other countries will follow. This demonstration of solidarity and responsibility sharing will save a lot of lives and give hope to many refugees who are still stranded in Libya.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Kayumba, Permanent Secretary, Rwanda’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA):
“Even if we are a small country but we have enough capacity, we cannot say that since the country is small, we cannot get more refugees. We have 149,000, we are getting more and more, no problem.”

One of the youngest of the evacuees was Somali refugee, Zainab Yousef’s two-month old daughter.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Zainab Yousef, Somali Refugee:
“We thank God. We cannot explain the life back there in Libya. There is fighting and we couldn’t even sleep peacefully at night. Now, we feel safe.”

UNHCR has evacuated more than 4,400 refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya to other countries since 2017, including 2,900 through the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Niger and 425 to European countries through the Emergency Transit Centre in Romania.