22/05/2026
Let's Talk Migration Series: Who is a refugee?
A refugee is considered a person who has been forced to flee their home country due to war and violence, and has a fear of danger and cannot safely return home due to persecution in the South Sudan case. Many of its citizens remain refugees in Uganda, gaining prima facie status. Uganda has long been recognised for maintaining one of the most progressive refugee protection regimes globally, built on an open-door asylum approach. Central to this model has been the use of Group Status (prima facie) refugee recognition. This mechanism allows people fleeing mass violence or conflict to be granted refugee status as a group.
However, in March this year, Uganda announced that it had revoked group status recognition of refugees, opting for individual status determination. This move will likely create protection backlogs, increase undocumented movements, and delay access to essential services such as shelter, food assistance, healthcare, education, and legal documentation.
As a result of the above backdrop, we held a one-day public policy dialogue to assess the Implications of Uganda’s Shift from Group Status Refugee Recognition. At the centre of the discussion was the policy's legal and humanitarian consequences for migrants and refugees. Many of the participants highlighted that South Sudan and D.R Congo, among other East African countries, remain affected by active conflict and governance challenges amidst an increasing climate-induced migration, making group movements inevitable. Therefore, the stakeholders called for regional solidarity, urging the Ugandan Government to apply its new policy leniency, taking into account the situation of refugees from South Sudan and the D.R. Congo. This policy dialogue at the Radson Blu Hotel Juba was attended by over 80 stakeholders drawn from CSOs, Government officials, and academia.
This program is implemented in partnership with our partner, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung "Regional Programme Security Dialogue for East Africa