Uganda Receives 8 U.S Deportees under Safe Third Country Agreement Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Bagiire Vincent Waiswa says the eight non-Ugandan deportees arrived from the United States and will have their protection requests handled in Uganda.

Uganda has received eight individuals deported from the United States under a bilateral Safe Third Country Agreement signed between the two governments, marking the first implementation of the arrangement since its adoption in 2025.

The development was confirmed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, in an official statement issued on behalf of the government.

According to the statement, the group arrived in the country on April 1, 2026, after their cases were reviewed and approved by a U.S. immigration judge.

The agreement, formally titled the Agreement for Cooperation in the Examination of Protection Requests, was signed in July 2025 and is designed to address the processing of asylum seekers who are neither Ugandan nor American citizens.

Instead, the arrangement applies specifically to third-country nationals of African origin who may be denied asylum in the United States and are unwilling or unable to return to their countries of origin.

Bagiire explained that the agreement aligns with both Uganda’s national laws and international obligations, particularly the principle of non-refoulement — a cornerstone of international refugee protection that prohibits returning individuals to countries where they may face torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

“The Government of Uganda, having been considered a safe third country, reviewed and accepted the proposal from the United States to cooperate in the examination of protection requests,” Bagiire said, underscoring Uganda’s role as a regional haven for displaced persons.

He clarified that the eight individuals are not Ugandan nationals and will have their protection claims assessed within Uganda’s asylum framework. Due to privacy considerations, their identities and specific circumstances have not been disclosed.

The development positions Uganda among a small number of countries globally that participate in such third-country asylum processing arrangements. It also reinforces the country’s longstanding reputation as one of Africa’s leading refugee-hosting nations.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry reiterated Uganda’s commitment to humanitarian principles, stating that the country “continues to uphold its longstanding commitment to providing sanctuary to persons in need and ensuring that they are treated with dignity.”

While the agreement is expected to ease pressure on U.S. immigration systems, it has also sparked quiet debate among policy observers about the long-term implications for Uganda’s refugee infrastructure, which already supports over a million displaced persons.

For now, authorities maintain that all procedures under the agreement will be conducted transparently and in line with international standards, as Uganda takes on a new role in global migration management.

Part of a Wider U.S. Deportation Strategy

In August 2025, U.S-based media outlet, CBS News reported that Uganda agreed to host certain migrants deported from the United States of America who were not Ugandan citizens, according to internal U.S. government documents obtained by CBS News, a U.S.-based media outlet.

The arrangement, framed under a U.S. “safe third country” provision, was to apply to deportees from elsewhere in Africa who had no criminal histories.

The documents did not indicate how many people Uganda could ultimately receive.

The reported deal was part of a broader U.S. diplomatic push to secure deportation arrangements with countries across several regions, especially for migrants who could not easily be returned to their home states due to diplomatic or other constraints.

The Trump administration argued such agreements were essential to its mass-deportation agenda.

A senior U.S. State Department official, responding generally, said Washington was supporting the President’s policy of removing people who lacked a legal basis to remain in the U.S., but declined to discuss “private diplomatic negotiations.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not comment on the CBS report.

Earlier that summer, the U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the administration to deport migrants to third countries with minimal notice and due process, paving the way for more rapid expansion of these transfers, the documents indicated.

Uganda was among several countries the U.S. had approached or secured understandings with, according to the internal papers.

Honduras had agreed to accept a limited number of deportees for over two years from other Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, including some families with children, with the option to take more later.

The documents also referenced arrangements or transfers involving Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, South Sudan, and Eswatini, and noted that Guatemala, Kosovo and Rwanda had announced readiness to receive third-country deportees.

The State Department said at the time that it had signed a “safe third country” asylum deal with Paraguay. Mexico, under a pre-existing arrangement, already took back some Latin American migrants who crossed the U.S. border.