Uganda strikes deal with US to receive non-Ugandan deportees
The documents, CBS says, indicate Uganda recently agreed to accept deportees from the US who hail from other countries on the continent, as long as they don't have criminal histories.
A man is detained by federal officers outside of a courtroom after his hearing at New York-Federal Plaza Immigration Court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York City on July 16, 2025. US President Donald Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged "invasion" by criminals. AFP file
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Uganda has struck a deal with the US government to accept deported migrants who are not Ugandans.
CBS News claims it has obtained internal US government documents showing Uganda is among the countries the Trump administration has successfully persuaded to aid its crackdown on illegal immigration by accepting deportations of migrants who are not their own citizens.
The documents, CBS says, indicate Uganda recently agreed to accept deportees from the US who hail from other countries on the continent, as long as they don't have criminal histories. It's unclear how many deportees Uganda would ultimately accept under the arrangement with the U.S. government.
Uganda joins other countries that have struck a deal with US, including Honduras, Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan.
"The government of Honduras agreed to a relatively small number of deportations — just several hundred over two years — but the documents indicate it could decide to accept more," CBS said in an article published on Tuesday, August 19, 2025.
"Both agreements are based on a "safe third country" provision of U.S. immigration law that allows officials to reroute asylum-seekers to countries that are not their own if the U.S. government makes a determination that those nations can fairly hear their claims for humanitarian protection".
Uganda's Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, confirmed the development when contacted on August 20.
“Yes, I’m aware of the agreement, but you need to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [ministry] for details,” he said.
Efforts to speak to foreign affairs minister Gen. (rtd) Jeje Odongo or state minister Henry Okello Oryem, were futile by press time.
However, the US Embassy in Kampala neither confirmed nor denied the CBS News in
a response attributable to a senior State Department official.
“We don’t comment on the content of private diplomatic negotiations, but the State Department is doing everything possible to support the President’s policy of keeping
Americans safe by removing illegal aliens who have no right to be in the United
States,” the embassy said.
UN warns against deportations
However, United Nations experts decried the US resumption of migrant deportations to third countries, including to war-torn South Sudan, stressing Washington's obligation to ensure it is not sending people into harm's way.
The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center stands in the Kern County desert awaiting reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California City, California on July 10, 2025. AFP file
"International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to ... torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life," 11 independent UN rights experts said in a statement.
Following the ruling, a group of eight migrants deported from the United States and stranded for weeks at a military base in Djibouti arrived in South Sudan in early July 2025.
"To protect people from torture and other prohibited cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, enforced disappearances, and risks to life, they must be given an opportunity to express their objections to removal in a legally supervised procedure," said the experts, including the UN special rapporteurs on torture and on the rights of migrants.
But they warned that "the US' expedited removal procedure could allow people to be taken to a country other than their own in as little as a single day, without an immigration court hearing or other appearance before a judge".
The experts stressed that assessments of potential dangers faced by deportees "must be individual as well as country-specific".
They highlighted that the United States had agreed to adhere to international obligations to prevent so-called refoulement, including under the Convention Against Torture.
The experts called on Washington "to refrain from any further removals to third countries, to ensure effective access to legal assistance for those facing deportation, and (for) all such procedures to be subject to independent judicial oversight".
A federal agent (L) warns a legal advisor to back off as the agents detain a main outside of a courtroom after his hearing at New York-Federal Plaza Immigration Court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York City on July 16, 2025. US President Donald Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged "invasion" by criminals. AFP file