By Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. The United States (US) recently inked a deportation deal with the governments of Uganda, as well as with Honduras, amid a search for additional agreements that would allow the U.S to deport people living in the country illegally to third-party countries. This was released by the US’s CBS media in a document on 19th August 2025. According to the internal documents, the Trump administration broadened its search for countries which would accept migrants that are not their citizens.
The move
The deportation agreement stated that Uganda agreed to take an unclear number of African and Asian migrants who had claimed asylum on the US-Mexico border, while Honduras will receive several hundred deported people from Spanish-speaking countries.The move is part of an attempt by Donald Trump’s administration to get more countries to accept deported migrants who are not their own citizens. The CBS report said the agreements with Uganda and Honduras were based on a provision of U.S. immigration law that allows people seeking asylum to be rerouted to third countries if the U.S. government determines those nations can fairly hear their claims.
Part of the deal according to report
In the agreement signed, Uganda agreed to receive deported migrants as long as they do not have criminal histories, but it’s unclear how many the country would ultimately take. Honduras agreed to receive migrants over two years, including families travelling with children, but documents suggest it could decide to accept more. Both deals are part of the Trump administration’s broader push for deportation arrangements with countries on several continents – including those with controversial human rights records.
No deal was signed Uganda refuted deportation claims
On 20th August 2025, Uganda’s state minister for foreign affairs Henry Oryem Okello denied a U.S. media report saying that there’s no such agreement signed between Uganda’s government and the U.S. “To the best of my knowledge we have not reached such an agreement,” Okello Oryem said.
“We do not have the facilities and infrastructure to accommodate such illegal immigrants in Uganda.” The story of a deportation agreement between Uganda and the U.S was broken by Uganda’s local media the Daily Monitor on 4th August 2025 saying that Kampala was scrambling to strike a deal with the Trump administration to avoid Washington’s proposed full or partial visa ban on Ugandan passport holders and the 15 percent tariffs on all Ugandan exports to the U.S. According to the Daily Monitor, officials involved in the negotiations had until 1st August to agree to the deal at least to show commitment to the terms by the set deadline as part of the U.S.
The Afghanistan deal
This is not the first time Uganda is reported to signing agreement with the S.U to accept foreigners into the country. In 2021 Uganda hosted Afghan “at-risk” nationals temporarily at the request of the U.S. government, following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The first group of 51 evacuees arrived at Entebbe International Airport on August 25, 2021, with the plan for Uganda to host a total of up to 2,000 people as a transit point before their relocation to other countries. The U.S. government covered all expenses during their stay, and these individuals were not considered refugees but rather “Afghans at risk. Uganda is a nation with an open-door refugee policy and hosts one of the world’s largest refugee populations, primarily from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This initiative marked Uganda as the first African country to host people fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan.
Countries that entered the deportation pact
The report said at least a dozen nations have agreed to accept deported migrants from other countries. In mid-August, the US State Department announced it had signed a “safe third country” agreement with Paraguay to “share the burden of managing illegal immigration”. The White House has also been actively courting several African nations, with Rwanda saying earlier this month it will take up to 250 migrants from the US. A condition of the deal specified that Rwanda would have “the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement”, a government spokesperson said. Rwanda has previously been criticised for its human rights record, including the risk that those sent to the East African nation could be deported again to countries where they may face danger.
Earlier this year, Panama and Costa Rica agreed to take in several hundred African and Asian migrants from the US. Government documents show the Trump administration has also approached countries like Ecuador and Spain to receive deported migrants, CBS reported.Since the start of his second term, Trump has embarked on sweeping efforts to remove undocumented migrants – a key election promise that drew mass support during this campaign. In June, the U.S Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to resume deportations of migrants to countries other than their homeland without giving them the chance to raise the risks they might face. At the time, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority ruling, calling the decision “a gross abuse”.
Opposer’s concerns
Human rights campaigners have condemned the policy, saying migrants face the risk of being sent to countries where they could be harmed. Also, UN rights experts and human rights groups have argued that the deportation to a nation that is not the migrant’s place of origin could violate international law.
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