KIGALI, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda will soon introduce a new machine readable travel document for refugees, an official in the ministry of disaster management and refugees affairs said Tuesday.
The government of Rwanda, in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will soon issue the Machine Readable Refugee Convention Travel Documents (MRCTD) to facilitate refugees in the country to travel outside Rwanda for business, education and other opportunities, said Jean-Claude Rwahama, director of refugee affairs unit, in a phone interview,
"Rwanda recognizes the right to free movement of refugees. We have decided to come up with a travel document that meets UNHCR and International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) standards," he said.
Previously, refugees were using a travel document to travel but was not electronically improved, Rwahama said.
According to Rwahama, the document with enhanced security features will be produced by the Rwanda directorate general of immigration and emigration.
Rwanda hosts more than 173,300 refugees, mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, in six camps (Kigeme, Gihembe, Kiziba, Nyabiheke, Mugombwa and Mahama) across the country, according to the UNHCR.
In November 2017, Rwanda announced that it was ready to host up to 30,000 African immigrants who were exposed to all forms of abuse.
