15 illegal immigrants arrested in Jinja

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An inspection team from the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) has arrested 15 illegal immigrants in Uganda's eastern city of Jinja.

DCIC said they found the illegal immigrants from India and Pakistan working at various facilities without valid work permits when they were arrested on Thursday (March 20).

“These individuals are currently being processed and await prosecution. We continue to urge foreign nationals to legalize their status by applying online at http://visas.immigration.go.ug,” said the directorate on social media platform X.

Last Friday (March 14), DCIC’s enforcement team also arrested 177 suspected illegal immigrants during an operation in the Kampala suburbs of Kabalagala, Kansanga and Muyenga.

DCIC said the individuals were from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, and Sweden, adding that they were being processed for prosecution.

Uncollected fines

The Auditor General’s latest report has indicated that a total of 5,048 foreign nationals did not leave the country in the last three years following the expiry of their work permits.

“The continued stay of foreign nationals with expired or cancelled permits has resulted in illegal employment of foreign nationals and loss of revenue,” Edward Akol’s report to Parliament for the audit year ended December 31, 2024, said.

He noted that whereas 102 foreign nationals were fined for overstaying their work permits in the period from July 2019 to June 2023, their respective employers were not fined for knowingly employing them without valid entry permits.

As a result, Akol stated, fines estimated at sh306 million were not collected, resulting in loss of revenue to the Government.

He also reported that in the last two financial years, there has been a notable increase in the number of work permits issued by the DCIC from 11,229 in the financial year 2020/21 to 14,185 in that of 2021/22, which is an increase of 26% in a period of one year.

“Despite this, there was no evidence of a corresponding increase in resources for the monitoring of expatriates."

A work permit is a legal document issued to foreigners who seek to invest, carry on business, work and reside in the host country.

Worldwide, countries regulate foreign workers through the issuance of work permits to control the entry, stay and exit of foreign workers.

“If unregulated, migrant labour creates competition for the local workforce for the few available jobs,” the Auditor General stated.

Akol noted that the DCIC still faces some challenges while using the e-immigration system, including;

▪️ Limited coverage of the system
▪️ Absence of key roles
▪️ Failure to provide real-time notifications on over-stayers
▪️ Delays to migrate legacy data
▪️ Limited reporting capabilities.

“Without implementing the system’s full functionality, DCIC may not realise value for money from the investment in the system over its lifetime,” warned Akol.