Uganda Suspends Registering Sudanese Refugees

Agencies – Sudan Events 

The Ugandan authorities have suspended registration of refugees of Sudanese nationality, as of last Thursday, without providing any explanations.
This is the second time within a week that the Ugandan government has closed the registration of Sudanese asylum seekers in the capital. On January 7, it issued a similar decision, and 24 hours later, it announced an exception that lasted two days, before deciding to stop it again.
The Ugandan authorities advised new arrivals fleeing the war to go to Kiryandongo refugee camp, which is 224 kilometers away from Kampala.
According to the camp regulations, registration for an asylum card requires settling in the camp, where the asylum seeker is given unstable local materials consisting of “tarpaulins and canna” to build a house, and the Kiryandongo authorities also provide monthly food supplies and cooking utensils.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, confrontations took place between Sudanese and members of the Ugandan police at the registration center in Mengo.
A senior official in the Office of the High Commissioner in Uganda, who preferred not to be disclosed, attributed the restrictions imposed by the Ugandan authorities and their imposition of new mechanisms for registering Sudanese, for security reasons, and to reduce pressure on local services as a result of the daily influx of Sudanese. He did not rule out that the matter was related to the incident of clashes with the Ugandan police or the involvement of employees from the Commission in receiving financial bribes from Sudanese, in order to obtain an asylum card quickly.
The official expected that the decision would not last long because the mentioned camp is not prepared to meet the needs of the arrivals.