The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem has taken about steps the Government is taking to receive Ugandans that have been stranded abroad after the lockdown that was put in place to curb the spread of Coronavirus.
Addressing the press in Kampala yesterday, he revealed that his ministry is expecting more than 500 Ugandans from different countries to come into the country before end of this month.
Mr Oryem said “Starting this week, we expect to receive flights from Southern Africa with about 70 Ugandans, from the UAE with approximately 200 Ugandans, from Afghanistan with approximately 108 Ugandans, from the USA with about 134 and about 120 from India.”
He added: “Today in particular, we are receiving 32 Ugandans coming in on a flight from Sudan and 16 Ugandans from Belgium and Netherlands. Yesterday we received a flight from Turkey with a few Ugandans. Other flights will soon follow from other regions.”
The minister also noted that those returning will have to foot their bill as is the practice globally.
“As has been the practice globally, the returnees will be required to pay for their own travel back home but fortunately, many of them already had tickets that they were traveling on when they got stranded and they would have to simply renew these tickets or top up if the fees were increased,” he said in a statement released by the ministry.
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For those Ugandans across land borders, “Arrangements are being made to start receiving Ugandans for across the land borders and details will be communicated.”
Quarantine centres ready
Recently, the Ministry of Health revealed that it has gazetted 37 centres where returning Ugandans will be quarantined located in Kampala and Entebbe. The centres have a total room capacity of 2,597.
