NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 18, 2022

Q: Some asylum seekers who cross the English Channel to Great Britain will get a one-way ticket to Rwanda under new plans by the government of the United Kingdom (UK). Where is Rwanda, a small landlocked nation in Central Africa?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The UK has signed an agreement to pay Rwanda to take the asylum seekers. Rwanda is one of the poorest nations. Which of its neighbors ranks as the poorest country in the world?

A. Burundi

B. Democratic Republic of Congo

C. Tanzania

D. Uganda


A. Burundi has a gross domestic product (GDP) per person of $700 a year, placing it at the bottom of the list in the CIA World Factbook. Rwanda has a GDP per person of $2,100, while it is $41,600 in the UK. It is expected to cost the UK between $26,000 and $40,000 to fly each migrant 4,000 miles and house them in Rwanda for three months.


Q: “Rwanda ... does not keep human beings safe,” said an African migrant in the UK. What have Rwanda’s people suffered in the last 30 years?

A. Civil war

B. Genocide

C. One-party rule

D. All of the above


D. Ethnic strife between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples led to a civil war and a state-orchestrated genocide that killed about 800,000 people in the 1990s. The country has been ruled ever since by a single political party, which has been accused of suppressing all opposition.


Q: What other wealthy European nation is negotiating to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda?

A. Belgium

B. Denmark

C. France

D. Germany


B. The Danish government passed a law last year allowing it to move asylum seekers outside Europe while their claims were processed. And, an official said last week that Denmark was talking to Rwanda. Meanwhile, Denmark has said it plans to host up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war in their nation.


Q: Which country has the least “room” for migrants?

A. Britain

B. Denmark

C. Rwanda


C. Rwanda is densely populated, with 1,210 people for every square mile. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has 717 people per square mile, while Denmark has 346. There are 34 people per square mile in the United States and only 3 per square mile in Australia, which also has sent asylum seekers to other nations.