By ENOCK MAYANJA KIGANJA | Wednesday, October 16
2013 at
08:44
More than 30,000 Ugandans face deportation from the
United Kingdom after failing to resolve their asylum and immigration
requests, a report by the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons
(UK Parliament) has revealed.
The report said the current backlog of 500,000
unresolved immigration and asylum cases will not be cleared for another
37 years at the current rate of progress. This condemns Ugandans to more
anguish as they wait for their cases to be resolved. Uganda accounts
for 30,000 of those cases, while it could no be immediately established
how many Africans were at risk.
However, the Uganda High Commission in the UK
blames the Home Office for failing to speedily dispose of cases of
Ugandans seeking asylum there.
Speaking at an event to mark Independence
celebrations in the UK at the weekend, Mr Innocent Quinoscars Opio, the
Second Secretary and In charge of Consular Services at the Uganda High
Commission accused the Home Office of “incompetence” in handling
immigration cases.
"We have always raised our concerns and engaged
the UK Home Office both formally and informally about their incompetence
in dealing with immigration matters especially those concerning
Ugandans and other immigrants," Mr Opio said.
'Unfair'
He cited cases of Ugandans on whose behalf the UK
Home Office has applied for temporary travel documents from the Uganda
High Commission in UK, to facilitate their deportation back to Uganda.
He said most of them are victims of unfair and poor handling of
immigration cases.
"We also don’t always bow down to pressure
especially when they send us applications to expel Ugandans from the UK
who are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases,” he
added, explaining that this stance was a sign of Uganda’s independence
from Britain.
The Uganda High Commission also highlighted the
issue of dual citizenship, saying that those Ugandans who acquire
British citizenship automatically cease to be Ugandans. However, they
can take advantage of the recently-passed dual citizenship law which
requires them to re-apply for Ugandan citizenship after acquiring
British passports.
The foreign office said it is only after
re-application that the dual citizenship is regularised through a
dual-citizenship certificate given at the end of the process.
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
