By Mevlut Ozkan
ISTANBUL (AA) - Uganda has reached a “temporary” agreement with the US to accept third-country nationals who are denied asylum in the US, the government said on Thursday.
The deal excludes individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors, and applies to those who are “reluctant to or may have concerns” about returning to their home countries, Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
He said the East African country “prefers that individuals from African countries shall be the ones transferred to Uganda.”
Waiswa added that the two parties are finalizing the detailed arrangements for implementing the agreement.
This came despite Uganda’s recent denial of reports it had agreed to accept foreign US deportees.
“To the best of my knowledge, we have not reached such an agreement,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem told Anadolu on Wednesday, noting Uganda’s lack of capacity to accommodate foreign deportees.
So far, at least three African countries – South Sudan, Rwanda, and Eswatini – have agreed to accept migrants deported from the US.
Last month, the US sent 13 deportees it described as dangerous criminals who were in the US illegally to South Sudan and Eswatini.
The Trump administration aims to deport millions of immigrants in the US to third countries.
Human rights activists have condemned the policy, saying migrants face the risk of being sent to countries where they could be harmed.