A first group of 12 deportees from the US arrives in Uganda, lawyers say

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Twelve people deported from the U.S. arrived in Uganda on Thursday, the Uganda Law Society said, in the first known arrivals since Uganda and the U.S. signed a bilateral deal permitting the transfers.

The deportees were “effectively dumped in Uganda through an undignified, harrowing and dehumanizing process,” the law society said in a statement, adding that they arrived on a private charter flight.

The deportations are part of U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration as he seeks to deter migrants from entering the United States illegally and to deport those who already have done so, especially those with criminal records and including those who cannot easily be deported to their home country.

The law society charged that the deportees were at the mercy of “unnamed, private interests on either side of the Atlantic,” adding that it was seeking legal remedy to stop what it described as an “international illegality.”

There were no details on the identities of the deportees, nor on their countries of origin.

Okello Oryem, a Ugandan state minister in charge of foreign affairs, said he was traveling and unaware of the arrivals.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, didn’t respond to questions about the welfare of the deportees.

Oryem told The Associated Press last month that Uganda was expecting “planeloads” of deportees from the U.S. He said the agreement with the U.S. was signed in the pan-African spirit and over humanitarian concern for Africans unwanted in a foreign land.

Ugandan authorities previously said their agreement with the U.S. relates to receiving deportees of African origin who do not have a criminal record.