Uganda to take U.S. deportees under limited third-country deal

Uganda has agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under a limited, conditional arrangement, officials said Thursday, a development that comes as a high-profile immigration case in the United States raised the prospect that one deportee could be sent to Kampala. The Ugandan foreign ministry said the deal covers third country nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but who are reluctant to return to their countries of origin, and that transfers would exclude people with criminal records and unaccompanied minors. Uganda also expressed a preference that those transferred be of African nationality and said the arrangement is temporary while detailed modalities are worked out.

The announcement followed weeks of speculation and joins similar pacts the United States has struck with other countries, including Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan. Uganda already hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Africa, roughly 1.7 to 2 million people displaced by conflict in neighboring countries. The foreign ministry’s statement was softened by comments from a senior Ugandan official this week who questioned whether Kampala should take in people...