Salta al menu principale di navigazione Salta al contenuto principale Salta al piè di pagina del sito

Dossier

V. 22 N. 1 (2020): Refugees in Uganda between Politics and Everyday Practices

Introduction 2020 1

  • Sara De Simone
Inviata
April 3, 2024
Pubblicato
2024-04-03

Abstract

In his opening speech at the Solidarity Summit on Refugees held in Kampala in June 2017, UN Secretary General António Guterres defined Uganda as “a symbol of integrity of the refugee-protection regime”.1 It did not take very long before the image of such a ‘refugee paradise’, as it had been repeatedly described by the international press,2 crumbled under the weight of one of the major corruption scandal that involved Museveni’s government, together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) country office.3 The scandal showed that Uganda’s goodwill in hosting large numbers of refugees did not simply stem from humanitarianism, or from Ugandans’ own experiences of exile in the region, which made them particularly welcoming towards neighbouring people fleeing violence, but rather fed a large corruption system that reached up to the higher ranks of the Office of the Prime Minister – the Ugandan body in charge of refugee protection.