Uganda says it has agreed with US to take people who may not qualify for asylum

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By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda has entered an agreement with the United States to take in nationals from third countries who may not get asylum in the U.S. but are reluctant to return to their countries of origin, the foreign affairs ministry said on Thursday.

President Donald Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and his administration has sought to increase removals to third countries, including by sending convicted criminals to South Sudan and Eswatini.

“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.

On Wednesday, another Ugandan foreign affairs official had denied a U.S. 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.

Uganda, a U.S. 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.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Writing by George Obulutsa, Editing by William Maclean, Aidan Lewis)