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Visa requirement for Ugandans

01 May 1991

Uganda has become the last major refugee-producing country whose nationals require visas to come to Britain as from 2 April. In a written answer to Sir John Wheeler MP Peter Lloyd the Minister responsible for immigration made it clear that the decision was taken in order to prevent Ugandan asylum-seekers from entering Britain. In 1990 Uganda produced the third largest number of asylum-seekers arriving in Britain after Sri Lanka and Somalia. The written answer suggests that "respect for human rights in Uganda has substantially improved" over the period during which the number of asylum-seekers has increased. However according to Amnesty International's 1990 report there is still large- scale detention without trial of political dissidents in Uganda, where rebels are fighting the government troops of President Museveni. Torture and extra-judicial killings still occur and new legislation empowers magistrates' courts to try people on charges carrying the death sentence. In the light of the Amnesty report and the government's record of ignoring human rights abuses in "friendly" countries such as Turkey and Sri Lanka it is clear that many refugees fleeing detention torture and death in Uganda have now been effectively barred from seeking asylum in Britain by this move. Of the EC member states only Denmark Ireland and Italy now allow Ugandans to enter without visas. Under the rubric of the various intergovernmental agreements such as those of the TREVI group, it will not be long before Europe's borders are closed to Ugandan asylum-seekers along with those of most other nationalities. Home Office Press Release 26.3.91; Amnesty International Annual Report 1990.