Over time, Ugandans abroad have been demanding to be evacuated back home amidst the Corona virus pandemic and these were in different parts of the world scattered in various countries.
News reaching us is that the people in China have refused to come back. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed this yesterday after these people refused to register on the list of returnees.
The State minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Henry Okello Oryem said that Ugandans in China are not among the 2,392 persons on the ministry’s list of potential returnees after they had refused to be added on to the list.
He attributed this to the continued poverty in Uganda which made these people not to think about coming back.
“Even if they (Ugandans abroad) come back, they will come into poverty. And if they come back, no one will welcome them back into their homes and they will also have nothing to do,” Mr Oryem said.
He added on that these
Ugandans in the beginning wanted to come back because the Chinese were mistreating them but once [Foreign Affairs] Minister Sam Kuteesa met the Chinese Ambassador and sorted out the issues, they didn’t want to come back.
Government on Tuesday received 34 Ugandans from Sudan and another 16 who got stranded in Belgium and the Netherlands following the lockdown on the country on March 23, that saw the country’s borders closed to passengers.
On addition to this, the minister revealed that of the 6,000 Ugandans in the UAE, who wanted to return, only 167 have registered to come back and attributed this to the many employment opportunities at the moment.
“Those who are staying in Dubai [United Arab Emirates] are saying most people who were working left and so there are many jobs and they are calling their relatives to go and work,” Mr Oryem said.
All returnees have to undergo through a COVID-19 test, get a certificate showing that they’re negative and also undergo a 14-days mandatory quarantine at their own costs.
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