Agency blasts Trump's ban on refugees

Demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall along the United States and Mexico border on January 26, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The United Nations refugee agency announced on Friday that Uganda is now hosting nearly 675,000 South Sudanese as rising numbers pour into camps.
  • Mr Egeland pointed out that many more refugees entered Uganda last year than the total of all who crossed the Mediterranean into Europe.

A refugee relief agency is drawing a critical contrast between US President Donald Trump's exclusionary policy and Uganda's open-door response to hundreds of thousands South Sudanese fleeing violence.

Mr Trump on Friday ordered the suspension of all refugee admissions to the US.

The United Nations refugee agency announced on the same day that Uganda is now hosting nearly 675,000 South Sudanese as rising numbers pour into camps.

“The poor are generous and welcoming, and we the rich are increasingly xenophobic and unwelcoming to those who desperately need protection,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told US-based ABC News.

Mr Egeland pointed out that many more refugees entered Uganda last year than the total of all who crossed the Mediterranean into Europe.

Close to half-a-million South Sudanese came to Uganda while about 360,000 people sought refuge in Europe in 2016, the Norwegian council said.

"The United States is the wealthiest country on the planet,” commented Joel Charny, director of Norwegian Refugee Council USA.

“The size and strength of its military are unparalleled.”

Yet by denying safe haven to refugees, he added, “the Trump administration adopts a posture of fear more appropriate for a weak and powerless state”.

“It is afraid of innocent women and children and of families that have escaped conflict and abuses,” Mr Charny declared in a statement.

The number of South Sudanese seeking safety in Uganda meanwhile continues to climb on a daily basis, the UN reports.

Nearly 13,000 were received in Uganda in the week ending January 24 — an average of 1841 new arrivals per day, compared to 1689 in the previous week.

More refugees are now coming to Uganda per day than to many wealthy European countries in all of last year, Mr Egeland noted.

He praised Uganda's policy of allowing refugees to work in the host country and providing them with a small piece of land to farm.

South Sudanese fleeing their homeland cite “indiscriminate killing of civilians, nightly attacks on homes, sexual violence, looting of livestock and and property” as among their reasons for making perilous treks to Uganda, the UN said on Friday.

Mr Egeland added: “The reason for the enormous flow of refugees to Uganda is that South Sudan is completely unraveling before our eyes. There is an ethnic cleansing going on there.”