Ugandan senior official denied a report by an American media outlet on Wednesday (August 20) that Uganda had agreed to receive individuals deported by the United States and stated that Uganda lacks facilities to accommodate these individuals.
CBS News had cited internal documents from the U.S. government on Tuesday, reporting that the Trump administration had reached agreements with Uganda and Honduras as part of its actions to deport illegal immigrants to a third country.
Ugandan Foreign Minister Okello Oryem informed Reuters via text message, “To the best of my knowledge, we have not reached such an agreement.” He stated, “We do not have the facilities and infrastructure in Uganda to accommodate these illegal immigrants.”
The Trump administration is currently working to deport millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, including seeking to increase deportations to third countries.
According to The Economic Times, eight men convicted of crimes such as murder, armed robbery, and sexual assault were sent to South Sudan, with one being a South Sudanese citizen.
In July, five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen were convicted and deported to Eswatini in southern Africa. The country stated that following “months of high-level contacts” with the United States, it agreed to accept these immigrants expelled by the U.S.
So far, at least a dozen countries have agreed to accept illegal immigrants from other countries deported by the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated in June that deporting individuals to a third country is necessary, as the deportees are “extremely barbaric, to the point that their own countries are unwilling to take them back.”
(This article is based on reports from Reuters)