“I’m not in Rwanda, but I know I’m never safe,” he said.
Tesfay Gush, who is Eritrean, said when he was deported by Israel to Rwanda in 2015, Kigali airport security agents stripped him of his documents and, working with civilians suspected of being smugglers, forced him to cross to Uganda.
Once in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, Mr Gush, now 50, sought to travel to Europe. He endured threats, robberies and beatings as he traveled through South Sudan, Sudan and Libya, he said. After crossing the Mediterranean Sea, he landed in Italy and joined Switzerland.
“The Rwandan government didn’t care about us as Africans or our rights as human beings,” Gush said by phone from Geneva.
Ms. Makolo, the spokesperson for the Rwandan government, denied her allegations.
Meanwhile, at the Gashora transit center, the refugees are eager to leave.
Among them was Nyalada Gatluak, a 26-year-old South Sudanese approved to move to Finland.
Before she left one afternoon in July, Ms Gatluak put on lipstick as her 18-month-old son, Boom, followed her everywhere.
“I came here so I could go where I wanted,” she said. “It’s Europe, not Rwanda.”