By Jeanne Beare, Fairfax
I found tears running down my face while reading Haydee Diaz’s June 30 Outlook essay, “It’s not hard to treat refugees decently.” It is unbelievably disheartening that the government of Uganda and others treat refugees with empathy, dignity and an understanding of the humanity in providing basic services while the U.S. government apparently does not.
The horror, violence and fears of the asylum seekers at our southern border are the same as those in Sudan, yet the outcome is far worse. To know the aid dollars sent to Uganda are being used to raise up the refugees there while we are traumatizing and humiliating thousands and thousands of men, women and children at our southern border is stunning. And makes me weep.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of the year 2018, there were 1,370,922 refugees and asylum-seekers in Uganda: including, some 1,165,653 Refugees, 25,269 Asylum-Seekers and 180,000 others of concern to UNHCR. Over 180,300 new arrivals were registered across the country in 2018, in addition to nearly 19,800 new births. Majority of the refugees in Uganda are from South Sudan, followed by DR Congo and Burundi.
Opinion shared by Jeanne Beare, Fairfax in the Washington Post
