Ugandan Minister says Dutch gov't never discussed asylum return center with them
Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeje Odongo, denies that the Dutch government discussed plans for “return hubs” for rejected asylum seekers in the African country. Dutch Minister Reinette Klever of Foreign Trade and Development Aid announced while visiting Uganda that she and Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber were working on this plan. But Odongo now told NPO Radio 1 program Bureau Buiteland that the topic was never broached.
The program also asked Klever’s Ministry exactly what she had discussed with her Ugandan counterpart. A spokesperson said that there had been “broad discussions about migration,” including a “brief” discussion about “the possibility of receiving rejected asylum seekers in the region around Uganda, like in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and South Sudan.”
But the Ugandan Foreign Minister is unaware of this discussion, he told the program. “We only talked about Dutch support for refugees who are already in Uganda,” Minister Odongo said.
He said that, if the Netherlands wants to talk about opening return hubs in Uganda, he would consider the proposal with his team. The program pressed him, asking if Uganda would receive money from the Netherlands for this service. Odongo responded irritated: “I told you, we didn’t talk about this at all.”
Prime Minister Dick Schoof only found out about the plan for return hubs in Uganda on the day that Klever announced it. When asked by various media if this was just another wild idea by his Cabinet, Schoof said: “It is a serious idea, but of course, there are a lot of catches that need to be looked at carefully.”
