{"id":30639,"date":"2026-04-02T15:04:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30639"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:04:05","slug":"twelve-deportees-from-us-arrive-in-uganda-law-society","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/twelve-deportees-from-us-arrive-in-uganda-law-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve deportees from US arrive in Uganda: Law Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A group of 12 deportees from the United States (US) landed in Uganda this Thursday, the Uganda Law Society said, marking \u200bthe first transfer under a bilateral agreement that designates Uganda as \u200ca destination for migrants the US cannot return to their home countries.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe deportation highlights the expansion of US President Donald Trump&#8217;s third-country deportations policy, which has faced \u200blegal and human rights criticisms over concerns it sends individuals \u200bto unfamiliar nations with no personal ties.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Uganda&#8217;s Foreign Ministry and \u2060the US Embassy in Kampala did not immediately comment when contacted \u200bby <i>Reuters.<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A Senior Ugandan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, \u200bconfirmed the arrivals and said the deportees would remain in Uganda as part of &#8220;a transition phase for potential onward transmission to other countries&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It was not clear what \u200bnationalities the deportees were.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The arrivals make Uganda the latest African nation \u200bto accept non-national deportees from the US, joining others such as Ghana, South Sudan, Cameroon, and eSwatini.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The law \u200csociety \u2060said the deportees, who arrived at Entebbe International Airport early on Thursday, had been subjected to what it described as an &#8220;undignified, harrowing and dehumanising process&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It added that it planned to challenge the legality of their \u200bdeportation in court.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In \u200bAugust, Kampala \u2060announced its deal with Washington, stipulating Uganda would take in individuals denied asylum in the US who were \u200bunwilling to return to their countries of origin.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ugandan \u200bofficials have \u2060clarified they will not accept deportees with criminal records or unaccompanied minors, favouring individuals of African descent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The East African nation, which already hosts nearly \u2060two\u00a0 \u200bmillion refugees, primarily from conflict-hit South Sudan \u200band the Democratic Republic of Congo, faces increasing strains on its resources due to its \u200bgrowing refugee population.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30640,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-30639","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The arrivals make Uganda the latest African nation \u200bto accept non-national deportees from the US","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"The arrivals make Uganda the latest African nation \u200bto accept non-national deportees from the US","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30641,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30639\/revisions\/30641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}