The International Refugee Rights Initiative has joined voices with the Refugee Law Project to strongly criticize the government of Uganda for failure to stop a mass removal of Rwandan refuges from Ugandan Refugee Settlements.
Rwanda refugee children
This follows an earlier incident this week where Rwandan refugees were being forced onto trucks at Nakivale in Isingiro district and in Kyenjojo with the aim of returning these refugees to Rwanda.
The Director of the Refugee Law Project, Chris Dolan has said in a press statement that they forced these refugees unto trucks promising them that they would be given asylum in Rwanda.
It is reported that while transporting the refugees, they were again rounded up by the police which has harassed them since then. The police says the Rwandans being bdeported came into Uganda illegally and have failed to show reason why they should be granted refugee status in Uganda.
Dolan says that what the government has done is a breach of its own Citizenship and Immigration Act which outlines the due process by which failed asylum seekers who have exhausted their right of appeal should be deported and the government has not followed those guidelines in trying to massively deport Rwandan refugees.
There have been internationally expressed concerns that many Rwandan Refugees and asylum seekers fear persecution if returned to their country of origin.