Ugandan officials are working to secure the release of 59 Ugandans detained in five detention centres in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
Fifty-seven of them were arrested for overstaying their visas in a government crackdown on undocumented migrants, which has seen more than 10,000 people reportedly deported in July.
“We are doing our very best to help them because the majority of the Ugandans, especially those on work [visas] had applied for the extension of their stay and were arrested during the process of renewing,” Uganda’s ambassador to Turkey, Nusura Tiperu, told Uganda’s private Daily Monitor newspaper.The other two Ugandans are facing human trafficking allegations and are expected to go on trial in a Turkish court.