By Ignatius Bahizi – East Africa Editor, The African Gazette
The first group of Afghan refugees arrived in Uganda this week. A press statement issued by Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a chartered plane carrying fifty-one (51) Afghanistan evacuees landed at Entebbe International airport at daybreak.
According to the statement, the evacuation follows an agreement between the United States and Uganda governments for Uganda to host 2000 Afghanistan refugees who include former diplomats, workers of non-governmental organizations and other government officials.
A source in Kabul who did not want his name to be disclosed for safety reasons told The African Gazette from his hideout that the Taliban were attacking people who used to work for International NGOs and government.
The US-backed Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani was overthrown last month by the Taliban fighters. Allies of the now exiled president, many who worked for his government and international development agencies are fleeing the country
The agreement between the Governments of Uganda and the USA.
John Mulimba, Uganda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs told members of Parliament that the coming in of Afghanistan evacuees followed a request by the US Government and acceptance by the Government of Uganda to temporarily host at-risk Afghan Nationals who are in transit to the United States of America and other destinations worldwide.
Uganda and other African countries accepted to host different categories of troubled Afghans who are distressed. Rwanda’s government also confirmed that they were to host over two hundred schoolgirls and their teachers, to prevent disruption in their education. This works as a temporary solution during the time their situation is being worked out.
In another press release issued by the US embassy in Kampala, the US government applauded Uganda and its people for their long tradition of welcoming refugees and other communities in need.
The politics behind hosting of refugees
Currently, Uganda hosts the largest number of refugees on the African continent. The United Nations High commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) puts the numbers to over one million and four hundred thousand from about ten countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Bernard Sabiti, a Ugandan social and political analyst told The African Gazette that Uganda’s host to millions of refugees has less to do with humanitarianism. He believes that this step has a direct co-relation to President Museveni’s shrewd international political move of appeasing the west; since the latter are instrumental in funding a big part of the national budget.
Museveni’s government has been accused by western countries as well as local and international organizations for chronic corruption and gross abuse of human rights by security agents. Therefore, accepting big number of refugees silences the President’s critics – especially Europe and America, who do not want to take in the refugees themselves, Bernard says.
The US government is agreeable to foot the bill of keeping the Afghanistan refugees in local hotels for about three months before they are resettled to other countries, according to Ugandan officials.
Apart from providing relief to the refugees, hosting two thousands of them in hotels for three months would equally be a huge relief to local hotels and businesses that were in distress due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Uganda and the tradition of hosting refugees
Uganda has a long history of hosting refugees which stretches from as far back as the 1940s, during the Second World War when its British colonizers at the time evacuated Polish and Italian refugees to the country.
These were followed by Sudan refugees in the early 1950s and later an exodus of Rwandan refugees in 1959. From then to date, the country has been home to refugees from her neighbors and from across the region.
Uganda’s 2006 refugee policy is described as progressive and friendly towards refugees because it grants them different rights like freedom of movement, work and education.
Government officials have always said that the friendly policy was mostly due to the fact that many Ugandans, especially those in government positions today were also refugees in the 1970s and 80s.
Concern over hosting Afghan refugees
Some Ugandans have expressed mixed reactions to hosting Afghan refugees. In their social media exchanges, some think it is a good idea as it upholds Uganda’s tradition of being the most hospitable country and caring for refugees. Others think that Afghan refugees might become a source of insecurity if the Taliban followed them up.
Protracted conflicts in Afghanistan have led to the displacement of millions. Those fleeing the current round of conflicts are adding on many Afghan IDPs and refugees.
According to UNHCR, 6.4 million Afghans are in forced displacement – of these 2.6 million are recognized refugees, and more than 3 million are internally displaced.
At the end of 2020, the majority of the Afghan refugees (1.449,233) were living in Pakistan, the refugee body records reveal.
Ignatius Bahizi – Currently East Africa Editor of The African Gazette, he is a journalist of repute and an analyst of geopolitics and security of the Great lakes region of Africa. Ignatius has worked in the region for over ten years with different local and international media houses.
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