Uganda has inked a deal with the United States to shelter third-country nationals denied US asylum but reluctant to return home, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
President Donald Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants who entered the US illegally and his administration has sought to increase removals to third countries, including by sending convicted criminals to South Sudan and Eswatini.
Preference For African Nationals
“This is a temporary arrangement with conditions including that individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted,” Vincent Bagiire Waiswa, the ministry’s permanent secretary, said in a statement.
Waiswa added that Uganda would prefer to receive people from African nationalities under the agreement.
“The two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented,” he said.
Initial Denial Of Agreement
On Wednesday, another Ugandan foreign affairs official had denied a US media report that the East African country had agreed to take in people deported from the United States, saying it lacked the facilities to accommodate them.
Okello Oryem, state minister for foreign affairs, told Reuters by text message: “To the best of my knowledge we have not reached such an agreement.”
“We do not have the facilities and infrastructure to accommodate such illegal immigrants in Uganda.”
Uganda, a US ally in East Africa, also hosts nearly two million refugees and asylum-seekers, who mostly hail from countries in the region such as Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan.
Looking For Accommodation
Since the second Trump administration took office, at least a dozen countries have already accepted — or agreed to accept — deportees from other nations. US officials have been actively engaging with foreign governments in this regard.
Internal government documents reveal that the Trump administration has also approached countries such as Ecuador and Spain, requesting them to accept these so-called third-country deportees from the United States.
(With inputs from Reuters)
