KAMPALA – Uganda has dismissed reports that it agreed to accept people deported from the United States, citing lack of facilities and infrastructure to host them.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Okello Oryem, told Reuters on Wednesday that no agreement had been reached with Washington regarding deportations. “We do not have the facilities and infrastructure to accommodate such illegal immigrants in Uganda,” he said.
CBS News had reported on Tuesday, citing internal U.S. government documents, that Uganda and Honduras had signed deals as part of the U.S. administration’s plan to increase expulsions of migrants to countries where they do not hold citizenship. The report noted that the agreements rely on U.S. immigration law allowing asylum seekers to be rerouted to third countries deemed capable of fairly hearing their claims.
President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed to deport millions of migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, including sending convicted criminals to countries like South Sudan and Eswatini.
Uganda, which hosts nearly two million refugees and asylum seekers mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan, is a key U.S. ally in East Africa. Honduras’s government had not immediately responded to requests for comment on the report.
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