US deportations to African state denounced as ‘undignified and dehumanizing’

An association of lawyers condemned the transfer as a scheme to forcibly remove migrants and “dump them” in Uganda

A group of 12 people deported from the US under a controversial third-country arrangement has arrived in Uganda, an association of lawyers in the East African nation has said, denouncing the transfer as unlawful and dehumanizing.

The Uganda Law Society said the deportees were flown in on a private charter aircraft, scheduled to land at Entebbe International Airport, about 40 km southwest of Kampala, on Thursday.

The lawyers described the move as “an advanced plot to forcibly remove... and effectively dump” migrants in Uganda “through an undignified, harrowing and dehumanizing process that has reduced them into little more than chattel.”

The transfer is the first under an agreement Kampala signed with Washington last August to accept some third-country nationals deported from the US. The government said it would not take people with criminal records or unaccompanied minors and would give preference to people of African origin.

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The US Embassy in Kampala has reportedly confirmed the removals, but did not disclose the deportees’ identities or nationalities. Yasmeen Hibrawi, a public affairs counsellor at the embassy said all deportations “are in full cooperation with the government of Uganda,” Reuters reported.

“We do not, however, discuss the details of our private diplomatic communications and for privacy reasons, we cannot discuss the particulars to their cases,” Hibrawi stated.

However, the Uganda Law Society claims that “none of the mandated institutions,” including the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, parliament, and the Foreign Ministry, has been involved in the transfer.

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The administration of US President Donald Trump has pursued third-country resettlement agreements to deport asylum seekers as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration.

Other African countries that have accepted or agreed to host deportees include Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan. Eswatini has confirmed receiving $5.1 million from Washington under the deal and has taken in at least 19 people since last July.

It remains unclear whether Uganda is being paid to accept deportees.

The policy has drawn widespread criticism, including from the African Union’s human rights body, over its secrecy and the treatment of those transferred. The Uganda Law Society said it has approached courts, seeking orders to halt what it called a “patent international illegality.”

READ MORE: US deports more migrants to Africa