PART II: REFUGEES LIVING IN KAMPALA

The estimated 50,000 urban refugees and asylum seekers in Kampala also face a difficult situation. For example, urban asylum seekers are very much at risk immediately after their arrival in Kampala, and asylum seekers and refugees are trailed and harassed by security agents from their countries of origin. In contrast to Kenya where Ethiopian refugees are most often targeted, it is the Congolese and Rwandans who are most seriously persecuted by these security agents.

While low-level police harassment of refugees is nowhere near the epidemic proportions of such harassment in Kenya, refugees in Kampala sometimes suffer from more sophisticated individual targeting by the Ugandan military and police. In addition, given the geopolitical role of Uganda in countries such as Sudan, Rwanda and the DRC, refugees and asylum seekers are often deeply fearful of the refugee status determination process itself, which in contrast to Kenya, is mostly run by the Ugandan government.