280 Ugandans to return from Dubai tomorrow

An Emirates Airbus grounded at Dubai International Airport in Dubai. 280 Ugandans to return from Dubai tomorrow. AFP PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • These closures were informed by an assessment done by the national taskforce on Covid-19, which concluded that imported cases posed the highest possible source of an outbreak of the pandemic.
  • However, according to Mr Sam Kutesa, the Foreign Affairs minister, although these closures were timely and done in the best interest of the country, they also created a parallel problem.

The government has said the first batch of the stranded Ugandans in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are scheduled to return home tomorrow.

The 280 Ugandans are part of more than 1,000 Ugandans in the UAE who have registered to be repatriated.

Mr Zaake Wanume Kibedi, the Ugandan Ambassador in the UAE, told Daily Monitor that those returning are majorly business people, those who were on transit, short stay visitors and some workers that have lost their jobs.
He said there will be another flight in about three weeks’ time to pick the rest.

“I salute the patience exhibited by these stranded nationals here and commend the government for responding positively to the prayer to have them back,” he added.
Two weeks ago, the stranded Ugandans in the UAE, in an online interaction with Mr Kibedi, decried the unresponsiveness of the government towards their plea to be returned home.

A number of Ugandans in South Sudan, Netherlands and Afghanistan and other countries, have returned home.
All returnees are expected to be quarantined in city hotels of their choice for 14 days and at their own cost.

President Museveni in a move to forestall a possible outbreak of the pandemic on March 21, announced the immediate closure of Uganda’s international borders and Entebbe International Airport.

These closures were informed by an assessment done by the national taskforce on Covid-19, which concluded that imported cases posed the highest possible source of an outbreak of the pandemic.

However, according to Mr Sam Kutesa, the Foreign Affairs minister, although these closures were timely and done in the best interest of the country, they also created a parallel problem.

“Several Ugandans who had travelled abroad on short visits for business, medical treatment, tourism and other valid reasons got stranded either in the countries which they were visiting or in transit countries as they travelled back home,” he told Parliament on June 2.