By Jeff Andrew Lule
Over 55 foreign nationals face deportation after they were netted working and staying illegally in the country.
They were arrested last week by the Ministry of Internal Affairs enforcement team, during an operation in different parts of the city centre, in the capital Kampala.
The Ministry’s spokesperson, Simon Mundeyi said the suspects were found operating various businesses without proper documents.
“We realized that some foreign nationals come as visitors. They are given visitors visas for about three months, and on expiry, they started dodging around and start doing very different odd jobs,” he added.
He told the New Vision in an interview, that last week over 55 foreign nationals were netted working and staying in the country illegally without documents.
Those arrested include nationals from mainly Pakistan, India, and China and were placed under the ministry’s holding centre pending their processing.
“They are going to be deported to their countries. We do these deportations and removals every other day. As soon as we get anyone staying illegally, we shall always remove those people out of the country,” Mundeyi noted.
He urged all foreign nationals to visit their (ministry) portal on www.visas.immigration.go.ug and apply for the relevant immigration facilities that match what they are doing.
“If you are given a permit of operating a shop or a wholesale shop then you should not be seen in the market selling vegetables. If you have a permit of working in a factory in Namanve, you should not be seen on Kampala Road selling phones, batteries, or selling general merchandise. We shall arrest you for abuse of facility and immediately send you out of the country,” he added.
“We also urged those with students pass who came to study to stay in school but not to do business,” he noted.
Mundeyi advised all Ugandans employing foreign nationals to ensure that the jobs they are doing, cannot be done by Ugandans.
“For you to be able to get a permit you must convince us that the job you are giving foreign nationals, cannot be done by Ugandans. They should be having very unique experiences and qualifications to get that permits and start working here,” he added.
He noted that the operation was conducted to establish whether the foreigners are in the right eligible to work with the right immigration facilities.
