Uganda has not agreed to accept people deported from the United States, a senior official said on Wednesday, pushing back on a U.S. media report that Washington had struck deals with Uganda and Honduras.
“To the best of my knowledge we have not reached such an agreement,” state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem told Reuters by text, adding that Uganda lacks the facilities and infrastructure “to accommodate such illegal immigrants.”
CBS News reported, citing internal U.S. government documents, that the arrangements were part of a broader effort to expand removals to third countries. The report said the deals would rely on a U.S. legal provision allowing asylum seekers to be rerouted to countries deemed able to fairly hear their claims. Honduras did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of people who entered the U.S. illegally and has sought to increase removals to third countries, including sending convicted criminals to South Sudan and Eswatini.
A U.S. ally in East Africa, Uganda already hosts nearly two million refugees and asylum seekers, largely from neighboring Congo, South Sudan and Sudan.