The Netherlands government is engaging Ugandan authorities to consider hosting rejected asylum seekers according to Dutch media reports.
Reinette Klever the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation visited Uganda this week and spoke to government members there about migration, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported on Wednesday.
“Ultimately, we want to curb migration,” Klever, who belongs to the Party for Freedom (PVV) of right-wing populist Geert Wilders , told the broadcaster.
It is important to the government “that rejected asylum seekers return to their country of origin,” said Klever. “And that is where things sometimes get stuck.”
The Netherlands has a “long relationship” with Uganda and it is a “hospitable country,” Reinette Klever said.
Migration Minister Marjolein Faber will now also be looking into closer cooperation with the country in the area of migration.
A ministry spokesman told reporters that Klever had “briefly discussed a number of options for receiving” migrants in the region, including Uganda.
“The plan is still at an early stage,” spokesman Jeroen van Dommelen was quoted by local press.
The Dutch government must first examine “what the wishes of Uganda and the Netherlands are and what is legally possible and desirable.”
