Rwanda is in the early stages of talks to receive immigrants deported from the United States, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said.
"We are in discussions with the United States," Nduhungirehe said in an interview with the state broadcaster Rwanda TV, late on Sunday.
"It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing...still in the early stages."
US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program after the start of his second term in January.
Rwanda has in recent years positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, despite concerns by rights groups that Kigali does not respect some of the most fundamental human rights.
Kigali notably signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the UK before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
UK uses funds from scrapped Rwanda deportation plan to boost border security
US plans for migrants
During his electoral campaign, Trump had promised to carry out the "largest deportation operation" in US history.
His administration has now pushed aggressively to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and other non-citizens since coming to power in January.
Many have already been deported to El Salvador and elsewhere, with ongoing legal action questioning the legality of some ICE arrests, detentions and removals.
UN rights chief deeply worried about 'fundamental shift' in direction in US
The Great Lakes nation in Africa is often viewed as an island of stability in a turbulent region, but the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned there was a risk some migrants sent to Rwanda could be returned to countries from which they had fled. Kigali accused UNHCR of lying, denying the allegations.
Last month, the US already deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee whom it had long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for the Islamic State, according to a US official and an internal email.
The US Supreme Court in April temporarily blocked Trump's administration - which has invoked a rarely used wartime law - from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members.
Unfinished deal
Rwanda's Foreign minister Nduhungirehe confirmed that the two nations were engaged in "ongoing" talks, he said "they are not yet conclusive to determine the direction this will take".
"I would say the discussions are in their initial stages, but we continue to talk about this problem of migrants," he said, without giving further details.
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When contacted by news agencies about the talks he said: "You will be informed when the discussions will be finalised."
The African nation of roughly 13 million people has been criticised by rights groups over its human rights record and increasingly diminished freedom of speech.
Rwanda has also faced mounting pressure over its involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the east of the country has been re-engulfed in conflict after a lightning strike by the Rwandan-backed military group M23.
(with newswires)
