Posted on June 13, 2013
The 35 suspected illegal immigrants who were arrested last week end [Saturday] from Elegu border posts, between Uganda and Southern Sudan are have pleaded guilty in the Gulu Court.
Namaganda Kasozi, the Immigration Officer at Elegu while in the Gulu court told court that the 32 were arrested on the 6th of June 2013 from Elegu.
“We have found out that some of the suspects do not have work permits, travel documents and some of them have entered the country illegally”, Namaganda told reporters in Gulu town.
Namaganda also maintained that some of the suspected illegal migrants have valid Visas but have been misusing them.
She said that most of them were from Kenya, Somalia and Cameroon.
The court sessions which were conducted in Kiswahili Language charged the 32 Illegal Immigrants with engaging in illegal employment into Uganda which is Contrary to the Sub section 59 Close 2 [a] of Ugandan constitution.
12 of the illegal Immigrants are to be deported to Kenya through the Malaba boarder where they will be picked by their relatives.
The court also ruled that 20 of the immigrants should be given 14 days to legalize their stay in Uganda.
They are still being detained at Gulu Central Prision and would be released after paying their fines which ranges between 100,000 to 150,000 shillings.
However if they failed to pay the above fine, they would be jailed for 2 months.
This is not the first time suspected illegal Immigrants have been arrested from Northern Uganda.
In 2012, about 150 illegal immigrants mainly of Asian origin were deported to their country after most of them did not have any identification or trading documents including passports, work permits and trading licenses.
They were arrested from Lira, Kitgum and Arua towns during an impromptu operation by the police and officials from the immigration department.
In Lira town, the operation team arrested over 40 Indian nationals and one Pakistani national and in Arua town, the immigration team arrested 70 Indian nationals who have been living and trading in the area without any valid documents.
Most of the illegal immigrants in the country especially Asian nationals come into the country as tourists and later turn into either traders or factory workers.