Ugandan authorities have detained at least 231 foreign nationals in a two-day crackdown on illegal migration and suspected criminal activity, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Tuesday. The operations targeted a group of Nigerians living in northern Uganda and a separate group of foreigners found living in a restricted apartment complex in Kampala.
Those found in the Kampala compound included citizens of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Malaysia, the ministry said. The complex was described as highly restricted and self-contained, equipped with its own restaurant and internal facilities designed to restrict movement, language that suggested the residents were being held against their will or at minimum under strict control by whoever operated the facility.
Of the 169 people found in the Kampala compound, 36 were women. Some individuals told investigators they had been trafficked into Uganda with promises of employment, while others were found to be engaged in cyber-scamming activities targeting victims abroad.
Three Categories of Detainees
Simon Peter Mundeyi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told the Associated Press that those detained fell into three categories: suspected victims of trafficking, alleged perpetrators of trafficking or fraud, and those who had simply overstayed their visas without engaging in criminal activity.
Suspected trafficking victims and visa overstayers will be helped to return to their home countries after purchasing their own tickets, Mundeyi said. Those identified as suspected ringleaders of trafficking networks will face criminal prosecution and could eventually face deportation as part of their sentence. Some individuals were found in possession of materials suggesting involvement in other criminal activities.
Intelligence that prompted the operation came from multiple agencies, including Uganda’s immigration department, police, and an intelligence-sharing network with foreign counterparts. The government said the operations were ongoing and that additional arrests were possible as investigations continued.
Uganda’s Position as a Migration Hub
Uganda has long been a destination and transit country for migrants and refugees from across the region. The country hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, South Sudan, and Somalia, a generosity that has been widely praised but also creates logistical and security pressures that the government says are sometimes exploited by criminal networks.
For short visits, entry visas are not required for citizens of many African and other countries, making Uganda relatively accessible to travellers. That accessibility, combined with relatively low operating costs and a growing telecommunications infrastructure, has made it attractive to both legitimate businesses and criminal enterprises.
Cyber fraud and online scams have become a significant law enforcement challenge across East Africa, with Uganda increasingly mentioned in intelligence reports from Western governments as a source country for advance-fee fraud and romance-based cons targeting victims in Europe and North America.
Combating Transnational Crime
Uganda’s crackdown comes as regional governments face growing pressure from international partners to act against human trafficking networks that use East Africa as a transit route. Ethiopian police announced in April 2026 the dismantling of a trafficking ring responsible for approximately 3,000 victims, a scale that illustrates how embedded these networks have become in the region’s migration infrastructure.
The involvement of multiple nationalities in the Kampala compound suggests a network with an international reach, operating in a country whose immigration systems were not designed to detect or disrupt this kind of coordinated activity. Human rights groups have called on the Ugandan government to ensure that those detained, particularly those who may be victims, receive appropriate legal protections and access to consular assistance from their home countries.