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Uganda has  from the United States to temporarily accommodate 2,000 refugees from Afghanistan while Washington processes their applications to live in the U.S. The move underscores the reputation Uganda has of being progressive on refugee issues. Refugee expert Dr. Evan Easton-Calabria provides insights into why.

When did Uganda start hosting refugees?

Uganda has a long history of hosting refugees. This started  with Polish refugees who fled from Nazi-occupied Europe. The Nakivale refugee settlement鈥攆ormed in 1959鈥攊n southwest Uganda is the .

Uganda also hosts huge numbers of refugees. In the mid-1950s, almost 80,000 Sudanese refugees, fleeing the first civil war,  in the country. They were only the first of many waves of refugees from neighboring countries to arrive. Uganda has hosted significant numbers of refugees ever since. 

Today,  1.5 million refugees live in Uganda, making it the top refugee-hosting country in Africa and one of the top five hosting countries in the world. 

Its long-standing 鈥渙pen-door鈥� policy has benefited it both politically and financially, with hundreds of millions of donor funds provided each year for humanitarian and development projects. These target both refugees and locals. While Kenya, for example, has received Euros 200 million in humanitarian aid from the European Union , Uganda has received this much from the EU in . 

Is the country more progressive towards refugees than its neighbors?

Uganda鈥檚 policies towards refugees have been hailed as progressive. It has even been called  

Refugees have the right to work and freedom of movement, thanks to  and , which provide a strong legal and regulatory framework for refugee rights. 

Refugees have the right to the same social services as Ugandans, including health care and free primary education. They are not confined to camps but can also live in urban areas. The country has, therefore, received a lot of  for 鈥渇ostering鈥� the self-reliance of refugees. 

However, despite rights on paper in Uganda, refugees still struggle. 

They are not legally recognized as refugees if they live in cities besides the capital, Kampala. As , they risk being misclassified as economic migrants. Lacking official refugee status (unless they have been registered in a settlement), urban refugees also often . 

Although refugees in Uganda are economically diverse鈥攐ne study even identified 鈥攆or many in settlements, subsistence farming is their primary livelihood. But, despite plots of land being provided in settlements, many don鈥檛 have enough land to farm on and soil quality is often low. This means that, for many, . This shows that liberal refugee policies, like those promoting self-reliance in Uganda, must be backed with adequate resources if they are to be more than just words on paper.

Comparatively, Uganda鈥檚 neighbors鈥攕uch as Kenya and Ethiopia鈥攈ave traditionally been more restrictive. Kenya relies on a system of encampment, where most refugees live in camps, and Ethiopia has only  to all refugees and asylum-seekers, . Nevertheless, it鈥檚 important to note that both are major refugee-hosting countries. They host far more refugees than many Western (and wealthier) countries. Kenya  a half-million refugees, mainly from Somalia and South Sudan. Ethiopia  788,000 and is the third largest refugee-hosting country in Africa.

How effectively does Uganda manage its refugee community?

鈥淓ffectiveness鈥� is an interesting word in this context. On one hand, Uganda provides an important foundation in terms of providing the legal infrastructure to allow many refugees to lead independent lives. But refugees also enter a challenging context: Uganda struggles to provide adequate services for its own citizens and unemployment is high. It has one of the world鈥檚 lowest rankings in the . 

In addition, the 2021 presidential election saw increased political and social unrest, which has led to the violation of rights  the freedom of assembly and expression for citizens and other residents, including refugees. While many Ugandans have welcomed refugees, there are increasing accounts of  and , such as firewood, in some parts of the country. 

The corruption of humanitarian aid is also a problem, with UNHCR Uganda accused of  in 2016-2017. This illustrates the clear need for effective financial management so that refugees can actually be helped.

There is also another important question of responsibility. Despite the positive attention the international community has given the country, donor funds have not often matched the praise. If schools and health facilities are crowded, in part because of refugees, the responsibility to provide more support should not fall on a refugee-hosting country such as Uganda alone. Limited resources mean limited management. As of June, the 2020-2021 Uganda Refugee Response Plan  22% funded, leaving a shortfall of US$596 million to cover all sectors ranging from protection to food security to sanitation. 

Does it look likely that Uganda will continue in its role as a leading refugee destination?

Uganda has had a strong commitment to hosting refugees for over 70 years鈥攁bout the same length that the  has existed. A spirit of  and  by many Ugandans have all contributed to its willingness to host refugees. Its recent temporary accommodation of Afghan refugees indicates that it is interested in continuing this role.

That said, no country should host refugees without significant international support. Many refugee response plans, such as Uganda鈥檚, remain significantly underfunded even as displacement rises and challenges鈥攕uch as the COVID-19 pandemic鈥攔emain. Even though Uganda receives a significant amount of money, it鈥檚 not enough to support the number of people arriving as evidenced by a funding  in June this year. 

Mechanisms such as the  offer a means to channel resources and increase collaboration on refugee hosting. But it is important to consider what displacement in Central, Eastern, and the Horn of Africa would look like if Uganda closed its borders. Uganda is making an effort in a neighborhood where few other countries have the same enthusiasm.

This article was originally published by . It has been republished here with permission.