The agreement between US President Donald Trump’s administration and the country’s parliament has drawn criticism from the country’s citizens, who also raises questions about the country’s parliament’s lack of support, and suggest that it is to relieve President Yoweri Museveni of the pressure.
According to Ibrahim Ssemujju, a lawmaker and prominent opposition figure, “Museveni will be happy” when Washington has imposed sanctions on numerous government officials, including the parliamentary speaker. He will be enquiring about “When are you bringing them?”
Although Ugandan officials have stated they do not want people with criminal records, they prefer deportees of African descent.
However, the country is being pushed into detention for El Salvadorian and Maryland native Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is wanted for human smuggling.
Trump’s hardline anti-immigration policies now feature Abrego Garcia as the face. He has a wife and two children in the United States, has resided in Maryland for years, and has protected his legal status ever since. In 2019, a judge ordered that he not be deported to El Salvador because he was fearful of harm in his home country.
Immigration officials in Baltimore detained him on Monday. Abrego Garcia is being processed for removal to Uganda, according to a statement from the US Department of Homeland Security.
As part of Trump’s crackdown on refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers in the US, the Trump administration sent more than 200 people to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison this year. He has already been deported. His case continues to be a significant turning point for the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown. According to Department of Justice attorneys, the Salvadoran citizen was deported incorrectly because of an “administrative error.”
According to his attorneys, Abrego Garcia was brutally beaten and subjected to psychological torture in the prison in El Salvador.
The entire scheme is a mess, according to the author.
“The whole scheme stinks,” said Mathias Mpuuga, the opposition’s leader until recently, “without the consent of the parliamentary system.”
He claimed that the US-Uganda agreement made him “a little perplexed” because it struggles to provide for refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring countries like Sudan and South Sudan.
Some Ugandans claimed that the agreement is only pertinent for the Ugandan government’s purposes because it is “economic expediency.” However, it is still unclear exactly what Ugandan authorities will pay for deportees. According to analysts, Uganda wants to be listed in Trump’s good books and is looking for better trade deals.
The deputy minister in charge of international relations, Okello Oryem, called the deal “complete rubbish” according to the Associated Press. The comments were made a day before his permanent secretary confirmed that an agreement was in place to accept people who “reluctance to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.”
According to human rights organizations, Uganda’s negotiators have allegedly been supplying reports to Museveni, who has been in power for four decades and who is in charge of a government that executes unlawful killings, detained opposition members, and targeted journalists.
Museveni was widely regarded as a strong US ally during his time in power, particularly given his support for counterterrorism operations in Somalia when he sent troops there to combat al-Qaeda.
However, his stock in Washington has recently fallen precipitously. A growing number of Ugandan officials were subject to sanctions as a result of former President Joe Biden’s administration’s mounting pressure on corruption, LGBTQ rights violations, and other human rights violations.
According to a report released in May by Human Rights Watch, Uganda’s LGBTQ community has been subject to increased persecution since the passage of a harsh anti-gay law two years ago. The report claimed that Ugandan authorities have “perpetrated widespread discrimination and violence” and “spread misinformation and hatred against LGBT people” since the 2023 law was passed.
The current prisons chief, a former police chief, a former deputy army commander, and former government ministers are among the Ugandan officials who have been sanctioned by the US, in addition to Speaker Anita Among, a significant ally of Museveni.
According to Marlon Agaba, the head of a prominent anti-corruption organization in Uganda, the agreement with the US is “for political and perhaps economic reasons” for Museveni.
According to Agaba, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, the deal eases Museveni’s pressure and may lead to trade opportunities.
Any strongman would welcome that because the Trump administration is about making deals, he said.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply