Uganda has confirmed it will accept migrants who fail to secure asylum in the United States, making it the latest East African country to strike such an arrangement with Washington.

Vincent Bagiire, permanent secretary at Uganda’s foreign affairs ministry, said on Thursday that the agreement covers “Third Country Nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States, but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.”

He described the deal as a temporary measure, stressing that unaccompanied minors and people with criminal records would not be accepted. Uganda also prefers that those transferred come from African countries.

“The two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented,” Bagiire added in a statement on X.

The announcement came just a day after Kampala denied the existence of such a deal. With this confirmation, Uganda joins Rwanda and South Sudan in entering into deportation arrangements with Washington.

At roughly 1.7 million, Uganda already hosts Africa’s largest refugee population, according to the United Nations, which praises the country for its “progressive refugee policy” and open-door approach. Yet the influx has grown sharply, driven by Sudan’s civil war, unrest in South Sudan, and violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The US move is part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort since returning to the White House in January to speed up deportations, including to countries that are not the deportees’ own. Earlier this year, South Sudan accepted a group of eight men deported from the US — only one of whom was South Sudanese — after a court battle failed to stop their removal.

Trump’s administration has defended the deals, arguing that some home countries refuse to take back their nationals. Rights groups, however, warn that sending migrants to third countries exposes them to possible torture, abduction, or other abuses, in violation of international law.