According to an agreement reached on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Netherlands would establish a center in the African country of Uganda to house asylum seekers awaiting deportation.

Other European countries are closely watching to see how this is implemented, as they too are looking for such an option. Only Italy has a similar program, with the Albanian village of Gjader serving as an Italian return hub for rejected asylum seekers since April. The UK had sought to implement a similar deportation center in Rwanda, even passing a law that included various safeguards after the country’s Supreme Court ruled Rwanda was not a safe country, but this plan was abandoned under the new Labour government in 2024. 

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Representatives of the Dutch government and Uganda signed an MOU to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers from neighboring African countries who cannot be directly deported to their home countries.

“We need to focus more on what is feasible than on what is not,” said Dutch Immigration Minister David Van Weel after meeting with Ugandan Foreign Minister Odongo Jeje Abubakhar.

The camp aims to “keep migration under control,” according to Welt, while both sides also stressed that the facility must comply with national, European, and international legislation.

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The Dutch opposition has already called out the idea as infeasible while also criticizing Italy’s center for human rights violations.

Migration lawyer Michael Yap is not convinced the deal the Netherlands has struck with Uganda will pan out. “If it’s already difficult to monitor compliance with agreements in a European country like Albania, how will the Netherlands handle it in Uganda?” he asked, according to Dutch news portal NU.

According to the latest polling for the Netherlands, the anti-migration Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, is leading ahead of next month’s elections. PVV, which won the 2023 election, had formed a coalition with other parties, but that fell apart after his partners refused to adopt Geert’s hardline stance on migration.  

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