Residents of Uganda capital concerned about US deportations pact

Ugandans on Tuesday questioned an agreement with the United States to receive deported migrants, highlighting the lack of parliamentary approval and that the deal eases political pressure on the country's authoritarian president.

Ugandan officials have released few details about the agreement, although said they preferred to receive deportees of African origin and didn't want individuals with criminal records.

However, the country is being put forward as a possible location for high-profile detainee Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador native who has been charged with human smuggling.

Abrego Garcia, the subject of a protracted immigration saga, was detained on Monday by immigration officials in Baltimore, and the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that he “is being processed for removal to Uganda.”

Local resident Alex Masereka Joel said it didn't make sense for Abrego Garcia to be sent to Uganda.

“He has totally no connection [to Africa]. I was reading that he speaks Spanish, he doesn’t speak English... So he is going to be thrown in a place where he will probably need like a translator," Masereka Joel added.

It remains unclear precisely what Ugandan authorities are getting in return for accepting deportees.

Uganda’s attorney-general, as well as the government ministers in charge of refugees and internal affairs, were not immediately available for comment.

Negotiators for the Ugandan side are believed to have been reporting directly to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian leader who has been in power in the east African country since 1986.

For much of his time in power, Museveni was widely seen as a strong U.S. ally, especially for his support of counter-terrorism operations in Somalia when he deployed troops there to fight the al-Qaida-linked rebels of al-Shabab.

But his cachet in Washington declined in recent years.

The Biden administration piled pressure over corruption, LGBTQ rights concerns and other rights abuses, with a growing list of Ugandan officials facing sanctions.