“I am not in Rwanda, but I know I am never safe,” he said.
Tesfay Gush, who is Eritrean, said when he was deported by Israel to Rwanda in 2015, security officials at the airport in Kigali stripped him of his documents and, working with civilians believed to be smugglers, forced him to cross into Uganda.
Once in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, Mr. Gush, now 50, sought to get 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 made it to Switzerland.
“The Rwandan government did not care about us as Africans or our rights as human beings,” Mr. Gush said by phone from Geneva.
Ms. Makolo, the spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, denied his allegations.
Meanwhile, at the transit center in Gashora, refugees are eager to move on.
Those included Nyalada Gatluak, a 26-year-old South Sudanese approved for settlement in Finland.
Before her departure one July afternoon, Ms. Gatluak put on lipstick as her 18-month-old son, Boum, followed her around.
“I came here so that I could go where I wanted,” she said. “That is Europe, not Rwanda.”
