The deported Rwandans arrived at Kagitumba border yesterday around 6pm.
As they testified, they were arrested despite having all travel documents on 17th January 2019 as they crossed the border to work in Uganda.
They were picked in military cars to Ntungamo prison where they were deprived of their travel documents stamped at the border and accused of illegal entry to Uganda.
They were taken to court, handed three months sentence and met over 100 Rwandans in jail. They say were subjected to forced labor including cultivating land of Uganda’s military officers.
“They would often take us to cultivate their land. We did it under beatings and whoever dared to escape would be burnt on the foot,” said Tharcisse Maniragaba one of deportees.
Vedaste Shyaka from Matimba sector in Nyagatare district said when Ugandan security find someone with identity card and other travel documents, they shift and instead ask for a passport to complicate the case.
Mupenzi Nizeyimana said prison officers get contracts at building sites in town where they deploy jailed Rwandans for construction activities, making bricks, chopping firewood among others.
“They force Rwandans to do such works regardless of whether you are sick or not. Saying that you are sick is nonsense to them,” he explained adding that Rwandans were told that they are no longer needed to stay in Uganda.
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