A week or so ago, the United Kingdom’s High Commission here found itself at the centre of a most regrettable incident in which several Ugandans lost their passports.
Most regrettable because this foreign mission, whether for cost cutting reasons or whatnot, nowadays processes visas for Ugandans wishing to travel to England, Wales and Scotland through South Africa. It was during this perplexing movement that the said passports disappeared.
Why they have to send our papers all the way to South Africa remains both befuddling and disrespectful. There is no known data in the public realm to validate any suspicion that Ugandans are being mistreated thus because they generally abuse the welcome of the UK and overstay their visas. As such, it becomes difficult to understand this behaviour by our former colonial master.
A few years ago, South Africa was another of those countries similarly mistreating Ugandans. They were even charging our people extortionate fees for transit visas when one was spending only a few hours in Johannesburg en route to other climes. It was after much public outcry and threats to implement retaliatory measures that this mission came to its senses and dropped some of its more draconian tendencies.
We have since seen some improvement at the South African High Commission although there remains a lot of room for improvement.
Now, whenever they deny Ugandan travellers visas to their country, the UK mission claims that the victims of these denials did not show enough proof that they had sufficient binding ties (either filial or financial) to guarantee their return home. But who is to say whether someone plans to hang on in UK to moonlight instead of returning home?
We have not been given objective proof to show that more Ugandans are hiding about in the London underground and as such must be subjected to more rigorous vetting. The prevailing (mis)conduct at the UK mission should not be tolerated quietly. A vehement protest is long overdue.
Ugandans are neither notorious for, nor otherwise known to be given to terrorism – which would be the other valid reason for making their UK visa applications tedious. We cannot have our national documents being flown all the way to South Africa for vetting without protest. Now that some people have lost their papers, who will take responsibility if these documents end up in the hands of terrorists?
While our Foreign ministry has dutifully maintained a very tolerant posture, we say it is time to call in the cards. Searching questions must be asked, and explanations demanded.
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