Uganda’s decision to approve the Trump administration’s offer to take in migrants unwanted by the United States has sparked criticism in the East African nation that already houses the continent’s largest refugee population.
“The whole scheme stinks” without parliamentary oversight, Mathias Mpuuga, until recently the leader of the opposition in Uganda’s national assembly. told AP.
Last week, Uganda’s foreign ministry said it had reached a “temporary arrangement” with the US to accept deported foreign migrants “who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.”
The deal was, however, subject to certain conditions, it stated.
“Individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted,” the ministry stated in a post on X, adding: “Uganda also prefers that individuals from African countries shall be the ones transferred to Uganda.”
Uganda’s stipulations, including its preference for African deportees, could further complicate the US government’s planned removal of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia from Maryland.
Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order saying he couldn’t be deported there, but later returned to the US to face federal criminal charges amid efforts by the Trump administration to remove him again, this time to Uganda.
A judge prohibited his removal from the US for several more weeks, while his claim that he fears being persecuted or tortured in Uganda is assessed.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, according to a statement from the State Department, which noted that both men discussed “opportunities to deepen U.S.-Uganda cooperation on migration, reciprocal trade, and commercial ties.”
It’s not immediately known how many deportees are expected from the US, or when they are due to arrive in Uganda.
Museveni’s press secretary, Sandor Lyle, did not respond to CNN’s request for additional comment Thursday.
“The two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented,” the country’s foreign ministry added in its statement about negotiations between Ugandan authorities and the White House.
Uganda is the fourth African nation that has committed to receiving foreign US deportees. The Trump administration has struck similar deals with Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini.
Many in Uganda, one of the world’s poorest countries, are concerned that its resources, which are already burdened with accommodating nearly 2 million refugees – most of whom fled conflict in neighboring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – will be further stretched if migrants were to arrive from the US.
“It’s a deal that helps relieve the US of its burden … but bears little for Uganda,” said Ugandan journalist and international relations researcher, Raymond Mujuni.
“Uganda already has one of the world’s highest refugee populations, and this merely exerts more pressure on its scarce resources,” Mujuni told CNN, adding: “There’s a lot left to desire in international law with this deal.”
This is not the first time Uganda has sprung up in conversations surrounding third-country deportations.
In April 2018, Amnesty International said in a report that some 1,749 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers were deported to Uganda by Israel between 2015 and 2018.
Ugandan authorities denied those claims, saying they had no such arrangement with Israel.
Beyond the refugee question, other observers are concerned that the US migrant deal with Uganda could cause other problems for the nation as it prepares for a presidential election next year.
“The agreement between the US and Uganda may shield the Ugandan government from critical scrutiny regarding its authoritarian practices, particularly as the country approaches a general election,” Nicodemus Minde, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies think tank, told CNN.
President Museveni, 80, has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986 and plans to run for a fresh term in the forthcoming polls.
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