ADDIS ABABA
The African Union’s (AU) rights body on Monday expressed concern over deals by Rwanda and Uganda with the US that would allow the transfer of deportees to those countries.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), in a statement, urged Rwanda, Uganda, and other African states to ensure transparency in such deportation deals, protect the rights of deportees, and avoid policies that risk turning the continent into a “drop-off zone” for arbitrary expulsions.
The ACHPR called the agreements “part of a logic of externalization of migration responsibilities and expose the persons concerned to increased risks of violations of their fundamental rights.”
The AU body said deportations may violate the principle of non-refoulement, the ban on collective expulsions, and the rights to dignity and asylum under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international and regional agreements.
Uganda this month became the latest African country to have reached a “temporary” agreement with the US to accept third-country nationals who are denied asylum in the US.
The East African country joined Rwanda, Eswatini, and South Sudan, which have agreed to take deportees from the US since President Donald Trump’s administration turned to Africa as a destination.
Last week, Rwanda confirmed that the first group of seven migrants from the US arrived in the country, weeks after authorities said the government had accepted to take 250 deportees.
In July, Trump used his White House meeting with the presidents of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal to ask each of the leaders to take in third-country migrants deported from the US.
The response from African countries has been mixed, with some accepting but others, such as Nigeria, refusing to bow to pressure to accept deported Venezuelans from the US.
