#Museveni is #trafficking economic migrants - #Uganda #Israel @UN @Potus @KenRoth @KagutaMuseveni @StateHouseUg @USAmbUganda @antonioguterres #JustinTrudeau

It is now three years since we first brought to light the news of a secret deal between Israel and Museveni to dump Sudanese and Eritrean migrants expelled from Israel into Uganda. As it emerged last week, parliament put the government to task to explain the dumping of 1,400 of such people into Uganda in exchange for military aid from Israel. The Prime Minister promised that this week government would come out with a formal statement over the matter. Unfortunately, these 'commodities of trade' are being referred to as refugees.

The 1951 Refugee Convention recognises a refugee as someone who is outside his/her country of origin, has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion and is unable to or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country or to return there, for fear of persecution. While refugees cross the international border, those who are displaced from their homes but remain within the boundaries of mother country are referred to as Internally Displaced People (IDP). The 1951 Refugee Convention mandates the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as the lead agency in international refugee protection.

International protection of refugees is an obligation upon states and the UNHRC on beheld of Asylum seekers and refugees to ensure that their rights, security and welfare are recognized. Once someone has crossed the international border and entered another country he/she applies for asylum. Asylum is the grant by a state of protection on its territory to persons from outside its territory who are fleeing persecution or serious danger. An Asylum Seeker is a person whose request or application for asylum has not been finally decided on by a prospective country of refuge. Once the host state grants the asylum, the person becomes a refugee. Each country has its respective domestic law that deals with refugees in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention. In Uganda, its the Refugee Act of 2006.

Refugee Status Determination (RSD) is the legal and administrative procedure undertaken by the UNHCR and respective states to determine whether an individual should be recognized as a refugee in accordance with national and international law. In some instances, refugee status is granted to all persons forming part of a large-scale influx without having to listen to individual claims of asylum. This is called Prima Facie determination of refugee status or group determination. The case in point is the South Sudan refugees in Uganda or the Rouhingya Muslim refugees fleeing Myanmar. In the event an asylum seeker is found not to qualify for international protection through an equitable procedure, such a person is in a situation similar to illegal aliens and may be deported. This is most likely what happened to these Sudanese and Eritreans in Israel. In some cases, even where refugee status was initially granted and the conditions in the refugee's country of origin have improved but the affected refugee is not willing to return, the status can be waived.

This is termed as applying the Cessation Clause as provided for under Article 1(c) of the 1951 Refugee Convention and Article 1(4) of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention. In some rare instances where the UNHCR makes a finding that the host state has unfairly denied refugee status so someone who deserves international protection, it grants its Mandate Refugee Status under authority of its status and relevant UN General Assembly resolutions. This implies that the UNHCR will have to urgently relocate such a person to another willing country. It is also very common for governments more especially in Africa to forcefully return persons to territories where they would be at risk of being persecuted or face physical harm. This illegal practice is referred to as Refoulment and it constitutes a serious breach of the strict international law principle of Non-refoulment. Museveni has repeatedly forcefully retuned Rwandese refugees to face the wrath of the Kigali military dictatorship.

On the contrary, persons who leave their countries of origin purely for economic reasons not in any way related to the Refugee definition, or in order to seek material improvements in their livelihood are referred to as Economic migrants and are not entitled to benefit from international protection. In most cases, such people target certain specific countries thus they stealthy travel through Safe Third Countries (STC) where they would have sought asylum before reaching their target destination. These Sudanese and Eritreans must have travelled through Egypt before reaching Israel. The case of Burundians who stealthily transit through either Rwanda or Tanzania before reaching Uganda is another live example.

There is a phenomenon of recognized refugees or asylum seekers leaving without formal authorisation from countries in which they have already been granted refugee status and move on to seek asylum or permanent settlement in another country. This is called Irregular Movement of Refugees (IMR) and is currently being used by many economic migrants in North Africa and Middle east to spontaneously reach Europe. These Sudanese and Eritreans may have been intercepted by Israel as they were undertaking such a treacherous journey.  

However, the Refugee Convention recognizes that someone may have voluntarily left his/her country of origin for other reasons other than persecution but before he/she returns home some events take place that make him/her a potential victim of persecution.  This was the case of Gen. Ssejusa when he chose to stay in London in 2013 after the Museveni regime heavily deployed at the airport in anticipation of his scheduled return. Another case of Dr. Milton Obote and members if his delegation who learnt of the Iddi Amin military take over while they were in Singapore for the Commonwealth conference.

Once someone has been granted refugee status, his fate is determined by three Durable Solutions. These are repatriation, local integration and resettlement.  Repatriation is whereby when the conditions that led to the flight from the country of origin have improved, then the Refugee returns home. Local integration is when the host country can opt to locally integrate the refugees by formally granting them citizenship.

Uganda has never formally granted citizenship to any refugees. Museveni, for ulterior motives, just forced a provision in the Constitution recognising Banyarwanda refugees as an indigenous tribe in Uganda. In very rare circumstances the UNHCR transfers refugees from the country in which they have sought refuge to another state that has agreed to admit them. The process is called Third Country Resettlemt (TCR); the first country being the country of origin, the second country being the country of asylum/refuge and the third country being the country of final resettlement.

Once such people are resettled in the third country, they are granted resident rights and in most cases, they become naturalised citizens. The top resettlement countries are USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Netherland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Germany, and France. The others are Hungary, Brazil, Japan, Austria, Chile, Iceland, Croatia, New Zealand, Spain, Romania, Switzerland. In Africa, it is only Benin and Burkina Faso that are internationally recognised as refugee resettlement countries. It is the UNHCR, International Organization for Immigration (IOM), the receiving state and other international NGOs that facilitate the identification, movement and settlement of such refugees. Uganda is not one of such countries and none of the internationally recognised key players are involved in the transfer of these Sudanese and Eritreans. It is this third country resettlement practice that is driving most refugees in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Over the years South Sudanese, Congolese, Burundians, and Rwandese have been resettled in mostly USA, Canada, Australia and the Nordic countries.

From the foregoing it can be authoritatively submitted that the secret deals to transfer 1,400 Eritreans and Sudanese from Israel to Uganda in exchange for military aid amounts to Human Trafficking.  The UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (CTOC) and its Trafficking Protocol defines trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transferring, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threats or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payment or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation." 

Israel is paying Museveni in form of military aid for him to receive these vulnerable people. Museveni is blackmailing the world and the west in particular by portraying Uganda as a safe heaven for refugees. By accepting these Sudanese and Eritreans, he is aiming at boosting his profile. He is also trying to divert Ugandans away from the fast-growing debate over his preferential treatment of former Rwandese refugees. The 1,500 Sudanese and Eritreans will be joined by their families and kin from their countries of origin through a family reunification process and the number will swell to about an initial 10,000 before they start having off springs.  The good news is that since they have failed with the northern route through the Middle East and North Africa, they will resort to South Africa from where they hope to connect to Australia by sea. Armed with Uganda's refugee passports, very soon we shall be hearing stories of caravans intercepted in Tanzania, Mozambique or Zimbabwe.

Otherwise, Museveni should be made to answer for the human trafficking. He has no defence whatsoever because these people are neither refugees nor immigrants in Uganda but just victims of trafficking.  Even the provision of admission on Humanitarian (Status) Cases does not arise here because they have not been admitted in the country in accordance with any national law. Cases of admitting on humanitarian grounds don't involve striking of deals with third party countries who transfer the victims. Whether these victims are refugees or economic migrants, it doesn't matter because Uganda had not been their intended destination but they are being coerced to cone to Uganda.

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