Uganda to host aliens expelled from isreal The Haaretz website carries a story of African migrants allegedly held at a detention facility Sellout? Unwanted persons in the Middle East will under a new deal be flown to find a home in Uganda. SHARE THIS STORY KAMPALA Uganda is likely to host 55,000 aliens and asylum seekers facing expulsion from Israel following an alleged secret deal between Kampala and Tel Aviv, the Haaretz newspaper reported online on Thursday, quoting Israeli Interior minister Gideon Sa’ar. Mr Hagai Hadas, the Israeli Prime Minister’s special envoy, reportedly brokered the deal with Ugandan officials, according to minister Mr Sa’ar, and that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein approved the consent. There was no mention of specific Ugandan officials or department of government with whom the deal was negotiated. Disclosure of Uganda’s identity follows the lifting of a gag order, which had restricted reference to the future host of unwanted persons in Israel to just an “East African country”. According to the newspaper, the new regulations are meant to deter migrants from seeking entry into Israel. Foreign nationals facing forced removal are being asked to leave voluntarily, relocate or be deported to Uganda. “In the first stage, we will focus on raising awareness within the population of infiltrators while helping them with the logistics of their departure, including costs, airfare and dealing with the possessions they accumulated while they were in Israel,” minister Sa’ar said at a meeting of the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee. The state is planning to impose a deadline – after the upcoming Jewish holidays – by which “certain sectors within the infiltrator population” will be asked to “willingly” leave the country, Haaretz reported. Uganda’s Foreign Affairs officials were not available for comment, and government spokesman Ofwono Opondo was reported out of the country. Information minster Rose Namayanja, however, dismissed the report outright. “They [reports] are rumours. The government offices that would be involved are Foreign Affairs and the refugee department of the Office of the Prime Minister, but they are not aware. I just want to believe that those are speculative rumours,” she told the Saturday Monitor. Similar sentiments were echoed by legislator Milton Muwuma who sits on Parliament’s Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee who said: “We normally share with the Chief of Defence Forces and the Ministry of Defence but in this case we are not aware of anything. Those may just be rumours. In any case it would be difficult to resettle any people in Karamoja because we are trying to stabilise the region and that would be a potential cause for disagreement.” History repeating itself? Mr Muwuma’s reference to Karamoja is perhaps because this is not the first time Uganda is being considered as a possible home for people from Israel. In the early days of colonialism, Britain which was then administering the territory that had become known as Uganda offered chunks of land for settlement of Jews that were unwanted in Europe and were facing persecution. According to various online sources, the British Uganda Programme, as it was known, was a plan to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland. The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain to Mr Theodore Herzl’s Zionist group in 1903. He offered land in Mau Plateau in present-day Kenya (then part of the territory of Uganda) and alternatively the Karamoja area in present day north-eastern Uganda. The offer was prompted by massacres against the Jews in Russia, and it was hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people. The proposal was brought to the World Zionist Organisation’s Zionist Congress at its sixth meeting in Basel, Switzerland in 1903 where a fierce debate ensued. The African land was described as an “ante-chamber to the Holy Land”, but other groups felt that accepting the offer would make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. In the end, the motion to consider the plan passed by 295 to 177 votes. The next year, a three-man delegation was sent to inspect the area and returned with a no verdict saying the place was not amenable for European settlement. In 1905, the Zionist Congress politely declined the British offer. In more recent years, Uganda has historically enjoyed warm relations with Israel and this blossomed in the early years of Idi Amin’s government before the dictator began hobnobbing with Israel’s Arab and Muslim foes. The relationship thawed during the NRM years. Today, the Middle East country has signed deals with President Museveni’s government to transfer agricultural technology, including on irrigation, supply of arms and surveillance equipment as well as re-modelling and modernising used combat aircraft. It is unclear what the country will gain by accommodating persons unwanted in Israeli amid fears some could pose a security risk. “Such a move would have serious political and security ramifications. We will deal with it as an urgent matter and demand explanation from the government. Will they come as refugees to go to refugee camps or will they be granted Ugandan citizenship? It cannot be just a matter between a few individuals in the government, Ugandans need to be involved,” Mr Theodore Ssekikubo, a member of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee of Parliament, said.
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 11:38:14 +0000
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