Ugandan Faith Leaders Grapple with Accepting Israel’s African Refugees

Some Ugandan faith leaders say their nation should accept African refugees facing deportation from Israel, while others counter that resettlement would place too heavy a burden on already overtaxed refugee programs.

Up until a few weeks ago, Uganda and Rwanda had been widely viewed as the two African countries that would absorb the refugees in a deal with Israel, which claims about 40,000 African refugees live in Israel illegally and should be deported. Up until a few weeks ago, Ugandan officials had spoken positively of the possibility of accepting refugees from Israel.

But now officials from both Uganda and Rwanda have denied that they struck a deal with Israel to absorb them.

Ugandan clergy are nevertheless considering that at least some of the African refugees in Israel may still wind up in their country. Many say these refugees — many of whom have arrived in Israel since the mid-2000s, fleeing unrest and war in Eritrea, Sudan and other war-torn countries, and surviving a dangerous trek across the Sinai Desert — should be welcomed in Uganda.

“When someone is escaping for security reasons and is seeking help desperately, as a Christian we have no alternative but to accept them,” Roman Catholic Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda, told Religion News Service in a telephone interview.

The migrants and their supporters in Israel have argued that…