Uganda To Repatriate 500 More Of Its Citizens Stranded Abroad

By Nsunjo Erica

The government Of Uganda said they are resuming the repatriation exercise for Ugandans stranded abroad due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and 500 people are expected to return this weekend.

Uganda’s 1^st repatriation was on 2nd July 2020 when the Uganda Airline Safely arrived from Johannesburg and Lusaka, a full flight of Ugandan nationals formerly stranded in Southern Africa and Zambia.

The current repatriation was suspended two weeks ago after the quarantine centers for returnees got overwhelmed due to an increased number of COVID-19 patients at the moment.

Ugandan Government suspended the repatriation because it had not yet increased the capacity of facilities to accommodate more returnees however, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repatriation resumes on Saturday this week.

“The repatriation exercise of Ugandans stranded abroad due to the Covid-19 pandemic is set to resume. This exercise has been halted by the Ministry of Health for a period of two weeks to enable proper quarantining of returnees who had so far arrived in the country,” the statement read.

On Saturday, July 18, there will be a repatriation flight from Washington D.C in the USA and another one from Doha -Qatar in the Middle East.

On Sunday, July 19, there will be a repatriation flight from Ottawa, Canada.

All Ugandan citizens to be repatriated are undergoing mandatory quarantine for two weeks. The designated facilities allocated by the Ministry of health can accommodate only 300 returnees every two weeks.

Uganda’s minister for foreign affairs Mr. Patrick Mugoya says that there are many people stranded out there and they are in consultation with the MOH to increase the capacity of quarantine facilities.

Mr. Mugoya said the stranded Ugandans are paying for the flight fare, but that government is catering for quarantine costs for those who are unable to pay.

Minister for foreign affairs adds that they are also taking advantage of flights coming to repatriate people from Uganda such as that which was coming from South Sudan, they make them bring Ugandans who are stranded there.

Uganda’s neighbor, Kenya has recently just resumed flights, hopefully, preparations for the repatriation of Kenyans stranded abroad are into consideration as Kenyans keep requesting their government to do so.