NATIONAL NEWS

Israel expulsion

Some asylum seekers have been

secretly repatriated to Uganda.
Is the Government aware?

Iraq

Israel
E

Egypt

M I D D L E

Libya

Chad

T
Iran

E A

Mediterranean Sea

Saudi
Arabia

Eritrea

Sudan

South Sudan

n
Yeme

Israel
Countries
whose nationals
have been
expelled

D.R.C

lia

ma

So

Uganda
Kenya

an

A
I C

KEY

Ethiopia

Rwanda
Tanzania

an O
ce

C.A.R

Indi

No legal status
The asylum seekers are sent to Uganda
and Rwanda with Israeli travel documents
valid for only two days, after which their
legal status in the recipient country is not
guaranteed.
The Israeli travel documents are
taken from deported asylum seekers as
soon as they arrive at Kigali, Rwanda or
Entebbe, Uganda by local representatives
co-ordinated by the Israeli Immigration
Authority, the report says.
The report states that fees for a two nights
stay at a local hotel in Uganda are paid by
Israel. Thereafter, the asylum seekers are on
their own, with no identification documents

Syria

A new report has named Uganda as one of

the two African countries hosting thousands
of Ethiopians, Eritreans and Sudanese
asylum seekers secretly repatriated by Israel.
A 42-page report titled: Where there is
No Free Will, Israels Voluntary Return
Procedure for Asylum-Seekers thousands of
asylum seekers have been forced to leave
Israel to a third country since March 2013,
in violation of international law on voluntary
repatriation.
Some asylum seekers are sent back to their
countries of origin, others with no travel
documents or who are unwilling to return
to their countries are sent to Uganda and
Rwanda. At least 1,205 asylum seekers have
been sent to Uganda and Rwanda out of
the 9,026 African asylum seekers, who have
been made to leave Israel in the past two
years.
The report says the asylum seekers
deported to Rwanda sneak into Uganda and
head to other countries, including Europe.
The report notes that many asylum seekers
deported to Uganda or Rwanda head to
Europe through South Sudan, Sudan and
Libya.
The report quotes one asylum seeker
who was deported to Rwanda, but
crossed into Uganda with a smuggler
and then headed to Khartoum through
South Sudan. While in Uganda, they
were arrested and made to pay $1,200
before being freed.
The report was published by two non-profit
Israeli organisations; Hotline for Refugees
and Migrants and Aid Organisation for
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel,
with the sponsorship of the Foundation for
Migration, Population and Environment
also based in Israel.
Uganda and Rwanda government officials
have persistently dismissed the reports that
there exist any agreement with Israel over
the asylum seekers.

ASYLUM SEEKERS COERCED

S

SECRET REPATRIATION

By Taddeo Bwambale

NEW VISION, Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Israel expels
Sudanese
to Uganda

NOT AWARE

The state minister for

foreign affairs, Okello
Oryem, said the
Government was not
aware of
the arrangement

and no possibility of proving where they have

come from.
The report says that some deportees to
Uganda are accommodated at a hotel in Buziga,
a Kampala suburb.
The asylum seekers set to fly to Uganda
receive a letter promising them an entry permit.
Upon arrival in Uganda, they are asked to hand
in their transit papers and no other documents
are given to them.

Two of the asylum seekers

interviewed claimed that they were
arrested upon arrival in Uganda.
While in Uganda they find it
difficult to apply for a three-month
residency permit, due to lack of
entry permits. None of those who were
interviewed had managed to complete
the process, although some have been in the
country for about a year.

Israeli authorities use

inhumane methods including
degrading and humiliating
treatment
The report states that Israeli authorities
use a myriad of methods to coerce asylum
seekers to leave Israel, including prolonged
imprisonment in Saharonim Prison,
detention in the Holot detention facility,
withholding of status, withholding of work
permits, the requirement to frequently renew
conditional release permits, as well as
degrading and humiliating treatment at the
hands of the authorities.
The repatriation is handled by the
Voluntary Returns Unit responsible for,
among other things, arranging flights and
producing transit papers for asylum seekers.
Each deportee receives a travel document
and a departure bonus of $3,500 at the
airport.
Government speaks out
The state minister for foreign affairs, Okello
Oryem, insisted that there was no formal
agreement between Uganda and Israel on
the repatriation of the asylum seekers.
I have talked to the minister of Internal
Affairs and my permanent secretary and
there is no such arrangement, unless it is
being done illegally, the minister told New
Vision yesterday.
He revealed that he had asked the internal
affairs ministry to investigate the line that
some officials in the ministry were behind
the deal.
Pamela Ankunda, the spokesperson of
the internal affairs ministry, said reports
on repatriation of refugees from Israel to
Uganda were false. She referred our reporter
to the permanent secretary of foreign affairs
ministry, James Mugume.
Mugume said: Neither the minister nor
myself has an idea about it. We do not have
any arrangement for receiving
refugees from Israel.
Apollo
Kazungu,
the
commissioner
for refugees
in
the Office of the
Prime
Minister,
maintained that
Uganda
was
neither receiving
nor processing
documents
for
refugees
from
Israel.
The
Governments
position on this matter
remains as before: we are
not receiving anybody of that
kind, he stated.