By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
There are two phrases in the title of this article: Refugee Economy and State interests. The assumption here is that the refugee malaise in Uganda is not an add on phenomenon but is integral to the interests of the State of Uganda.
When I mention State of Uganda today I do not mean the Public State of Uganda constituted by elected officials sub served by professionals, but the Deep State, which is constituted by a small group of self-interested individuals, unelected and closely knit ethnically and in terms of kinship.
Therefore, the Thesis Statement of this article is:
“The Refugee Economy of Uganda is desired and entrenched by the State to achieve the long-term goal to benefit from the refugee malaise economically and militarily”.
A Thesis Statement is a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.
I hope that what I am writing here will contribute to our understanding of the Uganda refugee economy and its intricate relationship with the State.
There are many types of refugees: cross-border refugees seeking security and peace in other countries; asylum seekers; internally-displaced persons; those fleeing because of religious and political persecution; those escaping wars; and those discriminated against on basis of gender and sexual orientation.
Uganda has had a number of her own citizens falling in each of these types. Widescale land grabbing, mainly by members of the ruling class, or those connected to it, and by Government, ostensibly to promote foreign investment, has produced many internally-displaced persons.
Social and political conflicts, such as those unfolding in Karamoja, have added to the load of internally-displaced persons in Uganda. There are many asylum seekers of Ugandan extraction scattered all over the World. There have been some Stateless Ugandans, the most famous of whom was Dr. Olara Otunnu, who missed endorsement by the Uganda Government, for the post of UN Secretary General on account of having denounced his Ugandan citizenship.
On the other hand, lack of employment opportunities for young people has led to an ever intensifying exodus of youth, especially to the Middle East, in search of lowly paid jobs. The exodus has been institutionalized, with so many firms, owned by State agents, or those attached to them, established to facilitate the outflow.
Although I have repeatedly to the young people as modern refugees, they probably qualify to be economic refugees. However, Government has boasted that it is getting a lot of revenue ($500m in 2019) as remittances by the slightly more 140,000 young people working in the Gulf States.
In a December 28, 2021 article by Nicholas Agaba in the Kampala Post, Betty Amongi, Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, is cited saying that Ugandans working in the Middle East were remitting $900m(about 3 trillion shillings) annually.
The number of Ugandan youth working in the Gulf States and the volume of remittances keep mushrooming. An average of 12,000 youths leave for the Gulf States annually in search of employment. The majority of the more than 140,000 are casual labourers; only 0.2% are holding professional jobs, while 1.8% are in semi-professional placements.
To understand and appreciate the status of Uganda in the global refugee malaise economy, and its own refugee economy, we have to put our analysis in the context of the global refugee economy.
According World Bank’s “Social and Economic Benefits of Refugee Arrivals”, released on 30th March 2022, UNHCR estimates that 84m people were forcibly displaced by the middle of 2021, including over 20m refugees and a growing number of internally-displaced people (IDPs).
As I have stated above, Uganda increasingly boasts of numerous IDPs in all four of its regions (Central, Eastern, Northern and Western), due mainly to land grabbing rather than social decay and collapse.
In just 10 years the share of the World’s population forcibly displaced due to conflict, violence and persecution, as well as economic and environmental crises, has grown from 1:159 to 1: 95. The Russian-Ukranian war has displaced a further 3.7m people.
The 10 largest refugee crises and situations in 2022 are given below:
1. Eritrea 492,000 (10% of the population live as refugees)
2. Central African Republic. 713,000
3. Somalia 790,000
4. Sudan. 805,000
5. Rohingya (,Myanmar refugee crisis), 1.1m
6. DRC 864,000
7. South Sudan 2.6m
8. Afghanistan. 3.6m
9. Ukraine 5.2m
10. Syria 6.7m
The top 15 countries hosting the highest number of refugees in the World are given below:
Turkey. 3,696,831
Jordan. 2,027,729
Uganda 1, 475, 311
Pakistan. 1,438, 523
Lebanon. 1,338,297
Germany. 1,235,160
Sudan. 1,068339
Bangladesh 889,775
Lebanon 856,758
Iran 800,025
Ethiopia 782,896
Jordan. 708,308
DRC 519,819
Chad 508304
Kenya 466,286
One thing is true. Most of the refugees of the World are generated and hosted in the poorer countries. Uganda, one of the poorest ten countries of the World, has consistently and persistently registered a rising number of refugees, especially since 1986 when President Tibuhaburwa Museveni captured the instruments of power. In the list of top refugee hosting countries of the World, Uganda is number 3.
With the M23-initiated war with the armed forces of DRC, which has interfered with President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s determination to build a road, using Uganda resources, to the Mulenge area of Eastern DRC, 17,000 more refugees from that country have sought refuge in our country.
There are claims that M23 rebels, who are of Tutsi ethnicity, are supported by both Rwanda and Uganda, whose Heads of State belong to that ethnicity. Most of the refugees flocking into Uganda are non-Tutsis.
I think, believe and am convinced that this is due to the fact that the majority of those in power in Uganda were themselves refugees in the country. They have a soft spot for refugees. They have created policies that encourage refugees to come to Uganda, unlike Kenya and Tanzania.
Indeed, globally Uganda’s refugee policies are recognized as the most progressive of all refugee policies of host countries. The Uganda tripod refugee model consists of (1) Letting choose where to work and resettle; (2) Allocating 50 square metres of land to each refugee family to cultivate and produce food; and (3) Encouraging integrated social service provision and market access.
Besides, a lot of foreign aid comes into Uganda Government coffers as refugee assistance. This is one of the reasons UNHCR calls Uganda a refugee economy. Indeed, UN Agencies spent $160.17 on refugees in Uganda in 2021. On the other hand, donations by countries were also appreciable.
In April 2021 Japan gave $9.8m, and in July 2021 Sweden gave $1.2m while Germany gave $4.4m. All this has been happening simultaneously with Government effort to integrate Uganda in the global money economy, in which the refugee economies are already integrated.
There is, however, rising concern in Uganda that Government gives too much preferential treatment to refugees than to the bona fide citizens. Many think, believe and are convinced that refugees have legally, but illegimately, accessed Ugandan citizenships, dual citizenship and nationality, as well as joined Government Institutions, such as the army and police.
Many think, believe, and are convinced that most of the land grabbing, and also individualization of public resources in the country, are the artwork of either former refugees or recent refugees that have access or are connected to power. People who think this way also try to explain the anti-people laws and policies in the country by evoking the refugee factor.
They reason that when Dr. Kizza-Besigye talks of State capture by a few individuals, he is just short of categorically mentioning that the State of Uganda was captured by former refugees (whom he supported), and is being entrenched by new refugees easily accessing our institutions and being recruited to serve power.
By this reasoning, which may not be far-fetched, it is one of State interests to ensure that the Uganda socio-ecology, socio-politics, socio-culture, socio-economy governance and leadership are dominated by people whose roots lie outside Uganda.
Accordingly, the refugee economy of the country is not only being imposed thereof, but is penetrating all other spheres of human endeavor, including agriculture, education, health and energy, which are the social areas of the total economy.
Many former and current refugee with citizenship and dual citizenship are known or believed to be entrenched in our agricultural, educational, health and energy systems, which was impossible before President Tibuhaburwa Museveni ascended to power in 1986.
Therefore, if we accept all this reasoning, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t, given the growing magnaliasation of bona fide Ugandans from the governance and leadership of the country, even at the lowest level of governance, then the Uganda’s refugee economy cannot be extricated from State interests, more today than yesterday, more tomorrow than today.
Under these conditions, it is difficult to imagine that there can be free and genuine transfer of power from the current governors to others with their historical, ecological, cultural and biological roots in Uganda. It is wishful thinking to imagine so. It is, therefore, wishful thinking to imagine that genuine pluralism and democracy can work in Uganda against reigning State interests of power, control and domination.
The growing refugee economy undermines Uganda’s long-term independence, citizenship, sovereignty, security, peace and unity. It is the surest tool the State is using to disempower Ugandans and put them under the continued rule and domination by former and current refugees.
Most of what is happening in the social areas and in the political arena are, no doubt, explained by the loss of power and authority of bona fide Ugandans to former and current refugees with our citizenship, dual citizenship and nationality. It is not far-fetched to suggest that Uganda’s refugee economy is also a political strategy of the increasingly narrow State.
It is my hope that this article will ignite meaningful and effective debate of the refugee factor in the economy, governance and leadership of Uganda.
For God and My Country.
The Writer Is a Ugandan Scientist And Environmentalist
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