Sunday, March 30, 2014

Rwandan Genocide Refugees Headed For Sweden

It is astonishing to think that there are still people being affected by the Rwandan genocide every day, twenty years later. Many refugees of the genocide have been living in Uganda after seeking refuge from Rwanda in 1994 and now, 2,000 are being relocated, this time to Sweden. Having lived in Uganda since the early nineties, the refugees would expect to have received their Ugandan citizenship at some point, however that is not the case, and they need to find a place they can call home. Initially, after fleeing Rwanda, the refugees headed for the Congo, but little relief was found there. The 2,000 refugees are expected to arrive early summer in Sweden. Sweden also took in the same amount of refugees last year. The Swedish parliament set the number of refugees they would take on each year, leaving the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN's refugee agency, to decide which of the refugees are most at risk of harm to join the group moving to Sweden this summer. Sweden takes on the refugees knowing that it has been too long since they have had a place to call their home, and in their particular situation, there is no way to become a part of the country they have fled to, nor go back to their own country. Therefore, Sweden has taken it upon itself to lend a hand, and hopefully being relocated to Sweden can be the means for a new start for the refugees. If you'd like more information on the move, you can find it here. If you would like more information on the Rwandan genocide in general, this link provides some pretty basic information.

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