A gaggle of migrants had been transferred to Rwanda from a faraway UK field via the British executive over a yr in the past. They are saying they really feel separate and dangerous – with one describing the African nation as an “open prison”.

With political events divided over the federal government’s debatable plan to ship asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, the BBC has travelled to the African environment to talk to 4 of the migrants already there – albeit below a independent assurance – about their enjoy within the nation.

The tiny crew arrived from Diego Garcia, an island within the Indian Ocean. They are saying their advanced clinical wishes, in some instances as the results of time rape and torture, aren’t being met in Rwanda.

Each and every of them receives the identical of $50 (£39) a presen for meals and alternative necessities, however below the phrases in their keep – affirmative via the United Kingdom and Rwandan governments – they don’t seem to be approved to paintings.

All 4 say they have got confronted harassment and unfavourable sexual advances in the street. They are saying they’re, in impact, “self-imprisoned” – too scared to travel out – occasion they stay up for the United Kingdom to search out someplace everlasting for them to reside.

The crowd – all Sri Lankan Tamils – had been transferred to Rwanda for pressing hospital therapy next suicide makes an attempt. They’re now out of army clinic and residing in two residences at the outskirts of the capital, Kigali, paid for via British government.

Their prison condition in Rwanda isn’t the similar as it could be for asylum seekers flown there from the United Kingdom – however a attorney representing two of the 4 says their “negative experiences do raise serious concerns” about Rwanda’s skill to deal a defend haven for “very vulnerable refugees”.

A senior Rwandan legitimate instructed the BBC she had “complete faith” in her nation’s clinical machine and the migrants’ considerations about private protection weren’t shared via others. “We have a thriving foreign population here,” she added.

To give protection to their identities, migrants’ names were modified

Not one of the 4 attempted to go into the United Kingdom – in lieu they filed asylum claims on Diego Garcia, which is old as a secretive UK-US army bottom.

They had been amongst dozens of community to reach at the island in October 2021 – prior to now reported via the BBC. They mentioned they’d been getaway persecution and looking to sail to Canada to say asylum.

The 4 we met in Rwanda mentioned they’d been sufferers of torture and sexual violence of their house international locations – some as a result of time hyperlinks with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had been defeated in Sri Lanka’s civil struggle 15 years in the past.

I’m sick a calmness street, in a two-bedroom rental, Azhagu says he has been identified with unpleasant post-traumatic tension disease, and hesitation about his day and the isolation are making issues worse.

“We are not getting proper medical treatment. We have mental health issues,” says the 23-year-old. “Whenever we go and tell the doctors about our problems they can’t help us.”

Rwandan clinical body of workers have shouted at him, he alleges, and on one future next self-harming, he says he was once threatened with arrest and instructed to go back to Diego Garcia.

Mayur, 26, who stocks the rental, says he has giving up on counselling. He says he doesn’t get correct medication and doesn’t get to have “a good conversation”. “That’s why I don’t want to go to the hospital,” he provides.

Legal professional Tom Snip, from UK company Leigh While, says an sovereign knowledgeable review discovered “each of our clients has complex medical needs which are not being met in Rwanda”.

We approached the army clinic the place the entire Tamils were receiving remedy, however we had been referred to the Rwandan executive.

The supremacy Rwandan legitimate in control of the trade in to switch asylum seekers from the United Kingdom, Doris Uwicyeza Picard, defended her nation’s clinical machine – including the migrants had been being handled “to the best of our ability”.

3 of the migrants – the 2 younger males and a lady, Lakshani – have had their claims for world coverage authorized via British Indian Ocean Field (Biot) management, which runs Diego Garcia. The United International locations and legal professionals representing the gang say this, in impact, provides them refugee condition. The fourth within the crew – Lakshani’s father, Khartik – has been approved to accompany his daughter.

It approach the gang can’t be returned to Sri Lanka, however the United Kingdom has mentioned it’s going to now not jerk them in. The Conservative executive instructed the BBC endmost yr that Biot “cannot be a backdoor to the UK”.

Hour Biot falls below British self government, it’s described as “constitutionally distinct”.

The crowd in Rwanda confirmed us prison paperwork, WhatsApp messages, emails and letters they’d written over the time yr to British officers, together with Top Minister Rishi Sunak, asking to be moved.

“I don’t know how many more years we will have to live as stateless prisoners of the British government without freedom,” one message mentioned.

The 4 additionally instructed us that harassment had left them anxious to let go their properties.

In Lakshani’s rental, a gray curtain is pulled around the barred home windows – shutting the room off from the outdoor global.

“We don’t go outside. We’re always scared,” the 23-year-old instructed us once we visited her and Khartik, 47. “I don’t have any women here. No friends.”

Each say there were plenty of tried break-ins at their rental. They display us movies that seem to turn intruders being stuck via neighbours.

In addition they recalled one incident on a close-by side road, when, they are saying, a bunch of fellows had separated them and attempted to the touch Lakshani occasion the use of “very inappropriate words”.

The enjoy, and others love it, were triggering for the pair, they mentioned. Lakshani says she was once prior to now sexually assaulted each in Sri Lanka and on Diego Garcia.

Azhagu instructed us he and Mayur had additionally been propositioned on the street. “Strangers came and asked ‘can I have sex with you?’ People were laughing. We ran to the hospital.”

They each reported their considerations to Crown Brokers, a non-profit world building corporate that works with the United Kingdom executive and serves because the migrants’ major level of touch in Rwanda.

All 4 instructed us Crown Brokers had now not taken their court cases severely.

“They asked me: ‘Why are you going out when you know you will get into trouble?’” says Azhagu, recalling one of the crucial conversations with the corporate. “I asked them: ‘Why are you keeping us here when you know there is trouble?’ They didn’t respond.”

Crown Brokers didn’t reply to express allegations when approached for remark via the BBC.

Attorneys representing the gang mentioned they’d raised a couple of incidents of side road harassment and break-ins with Biot officers, who had now not “substantively responded”.

The Biot management didn’t reply to needs for remark.

The 4 instructed us they’d now not approached Rwandan police for backup. All of them mentioned they distrusted uniformed legislation enforcement in keeping with time stories of abuse.

The senior Rwandan legitimate, Ms Picard, mentioned she was once “not sure how we can help if the national authorities have not been approached”.

“[The migrants’] concerns about their safety are not shared by anybody. Not by Rwandans, not residents,” she instructed the BBC. “It breaks my heart to hear that somebody may not feel safe in this country, especially when we’ve worked very hard to make this country safe for everyone.”

The United Kingdom executive’s overseas progress recommendation says crime ranges are moderately low in Rwanda, however there are instances of housebreaking, robbery, bag-snatching and mugging in Kigali.

The Tamils stated they have got had sure interactions in Rwanda however say the unfavorable stories have compounded time shock and left them anxious.

Lakshani and Khartik mentioned their residing status in Rwanda was once an growth from the Diego Garcia camp, the place they’d slept in tents in a rat-infested camp, had restricted telephone get admission to, and may just now not cook dinner their very own foods.

There’s a 5th Tamil who extra in Rwanda next additionally being flown from Diego Garcia following a suicide effort. He’s nonetheless pursuing a declare for world coverage. The BBC has spoken to him at the telephone, as he’s these days within the army clinic and now not allowed to let go.

The BBC has clear a letter officially discharging him – announcing he will have to be handled as an outpatient. He says he’s being held in opposition to his will next refusing to go back to Diego Garcia. His attorney has referred to as on Biot to conserve an answer for him.

The 4 migrants we met were instructed that, if they don’t need to stay in Rwanda, they may be able to go back to the Diego Garcia camp till being resettled in a “safe third country”.

The Overseas Place of business didn’t reply to BBC questions on whether or not Rwanda was once being regarded as as a “safe third country” to completely resettle the gang.

After we requested the migrants concerning the British executive’s plan to utility Rwanda to procedure and space some asylum seekers from the United Kingdom, all mentioned they’d considerations. “Those refugees will endure the same difficulties and hardship we face,” one mentioned.

Leigh While attorney Tom Snip mentioned his two shoppers in Rwanda were left via the United Kingdom executive and not using a sure bet and in a “situation of perennial purgatory”. Courtroom paperwork, lodged in London, argue the migrants’ remedy in Rwanda, and on Diego Garcia, “amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to international law”.

Rwandan legitimate Ms Picard mentioned there was once “no similarity” between the gang of Tamils and those that might go from the United Kingdom – who would, she mentioned, be “processed and integrated into our society”.

Ms Picard mentioned her nation was once “always open” to having conversations about settling the Diego Garcia crew completely, and that if that took place, they’d be “provided with all the protections and guarantees and the integration needs they would have”.

However “right now they are being treated as medical evacuees who need medical treatment”, she mentioned.

Negative cash was once given to Rwanda to soak up and space the migrants from Diego Garcia, mentioned Ms Picard, and the “only link” with the UK-Rwanda asylum trade in was once that the 2 international locations had been “very strong partners”.

The Overseas Place of business has declined BBC requests to serve main points of the Diego Garcia association. The trade in was once affirmative the use of unsigned diplomatic notes written within the 3rd particular person – referred to as “notes verbales” – despatched between the British Embassy in Kigali and the Rwandan executive. The Overseas Place of business instructed us that freeing the tips below a Liberty of Data request would “prejudice the relations” between the 2 international locations.

Neither the Conservatives nor Labour would remark at the destiny of the Diego Garcia migrants in Rwanda or what they’d search to do with them in the event that they win the election.

Each events have pledged to deliver internet migration unwell, however Labour has mentioned it could scrap the Conservatives’ plan to fly some asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda.

Mr Sunak has made handing over the Rwanda plan a key precedence of his premiership, arguing it’s going to deter community from crossing the English Channel in tiny boats.

Labour has described the scheme – which has already value taxpayers £310m – as a “con from start to finish”.

In a observation, the Broad Democrats described the instances of Tamils in Rwanda as “deeply concerning” and mentioned they had to be “properly investigated”.

The Conservatives’ coverage to ship asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, they added, was once ”immoral, unworkable and extremely dear [for] taxpayers”.

The Inexperienced Birthday party co-leader Carla Denyer has described the Rwanda plan as “punitive” and “inhumane” – including that tips on how to cancel community risking their lives in tiny boats was once to serve “safe and legal routes” for them to use for asylum from in another country.

Reform UK didn’t reply to needs for remark. In its draft coverage report, the birthday party says it could utility British In another country Territories to impulsively procedure claims of asylum seekers arriving via defend international locations.

The UN refugee company has referred to as on the United Kingdom to “secure solutions” for the gang in Rwanda, and about 60 asylum seekers nonetheless on Diego Garcia, in order with its “international obligations”.

Hour they wait, the migrants proceed to dream of a day in different places.

“We wonder if we should be thankful to Britain for saving our lives when we arrived at Diego Garcia, or whether we should get angry with them for putting our lives in limbo,” Mayur says.