The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | More than 1,000 foreigners have hastily applied to renew their stay documents in the last four weeks. This is after the Ministry of Internal Affairs threatened to arrest and deport them back to their respective countries.
Jacob Siminyu, the Internal Affairs Ministry spokesperson says that at the end of January this year, hundreds of foreigners had abused the Covid-19 amnesty to illegally stay in the country without valid documents.
Siminyu said that the amnesty catered for the lockdown period when various government offices including immigrations had shut offices or operated at half capacity in a bid to control the spread of Covid-19.
However, the ministry said even when President Yoweri Museveni lifted the second lockdown at the end of July last year, many foreigners did not bother to update their status. It was resolved that foreigners be informed through the media about the pending operation.
Siminyu said ever since they announced a plan to arrest people illegally living in the country, an average of 50 applications from foreigners seeking to validate their documents is received every day.
“As we had notified you earlier, there are foreigners living in the country without status. Some of them still think we are living in Covid-19. Ever since we made the notification, we are getting more than 50 applications every day,” Siminyu said.
This means more than 1,000 applications were received in the month of February and the numbers have since increased. Siminyu explains that every day a foreigner lives in Uganda with expired documents like a Visa, work permit, they are fined 20 Dollars.
The majority of the foreigners have accumulated fines of more than Shillings 6 million. Asked on whether those applying to update their status are first ordered to pay fines for the months they have illegally lived in the country, Siminyu said each of them comes with different excuses and they listen to them accordingly.
“Every day you spend without renewing your status, we fine you $20 per day. They are dealt with individually. Some had lost documents and we listen to them,” Siminyu said. Uganda spent nearly two years operating in total and partial lockdown.
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