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Uganda has Now Agreed to Take In US Deportees
From the Outside Looking
After prevaricating for several days, the Government has agreed to take deported illegal immigrants from the United States. It follows a US news report by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) that Presidents Donald Trump and Yoweri Museveni had reached a deportation deal as part of their drive to step up expulsions of migrants to countries where they do not have citizenship.
The consideration for Uganda is the indication that the US is considering lifting a ban on Ugandan passport holders wishing to travel to the US. Also, a lessening of the 15% tariffs that the US is imposing on Uganda’s exports.
Yet a day ago, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Okello Oryem, had told the British news agency, Reuters, that, “To the best of my knowledge, we have not reached such an agreement.”
And this was almost immediately countermanded by his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Vincent Bagiire Waiswa, who said that, “The two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented.”
In its latest deportations, the US State Department had announced that Uganda and Honduras had agreed to take in deportees. Waiswa added that Uganda has reached an agreement to take in deportees from third countries who may not get asylum, but are “reluctant” to go back to their own countries. “Uganda prefers individuals from African countries,” he said.
Since July, Trump has been deporting millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, especially to Third World countries. Some of these are convicted criminals in the countries of their origin.
There is so far a diplomatic stand-off between the US and Eswatini, where deportees convicted of serious crimes were flown to Eswatini, where they are now in a high-security prison. The deportations are being challenged by a group of Swazi and southern African non-governmental organisations.
There have been immigrants convicted of violent crimes hailing from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen, Myanmar, Mexico, Cuba and other countries who were deported to violence-torn South Sudan, via Djibouti, where they were held for weeks in a shipping container. More than 250 Venezuelans were eventually repatriated to Venezuela after being sent to a notorious El Salvador prison in March. Some have been sent to Guatemala, Kosovo and Rwanda.
Last week, the State Department said the U.S. had signed a “safe third country” asylum agreement with Paraguay, Mexico, Honduras and Uganda. Waiswa said that Uganda will not accept people with criminal records or unaccompanied minors.
The US documents indicated Uganda agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. from other countries on the continent, who have no criminal histories. Uganda is regarded as a “safe third country”.
Human rights advocates have strongly denounced the Trump administration’s effort, saying migrants could be deported to countries where they could be harmed or returned to the place they fled. Some of the countries persuaded to sign deportation agreements have been plagued by reports of human rights abuses.
In a report released last week, the State Department indicated that despite working with the United Nations to provide humanitarian protection to refugees, it described “negative developments in the human rights situation in Uganda,” citing unlawful killings, “arbitrary” arrests, disappearances and a lack of action from the Government to curb human rights abuses.
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