Reverse slave trade: Illegal emigrants to the US will be exported to Uganda

There is no official program called "reverse slave trade" that describes the forced export of illegal emigrants from the US to Uganda. However, as of August 2025, Uganda has reached a conditional agreement with the United States to accept certain migrants being deported from the US. The key points of this agreement include:

• Only migrants who do not have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors will be accepted by Uganda.

• Uganda has indicated a preference for accepting deportees who are nationals of African countries, rather than those with no previous connection to Africa.

• The agreement is described as temporary, and details regarding its implementation are still being finalized.

• Ugandan officials have questioned the wisdom and fairness of integrating people "rejected by their own countries" into local communities in Uganda, suggesting there are limits even to Uganda's traditionally generous refugee policy.

• This move is part of a broader US campaign to find third-party countries willing to accept deported migrants, with similar arrangements occurring recently in Rwanda, Eswatini, South Sudan, and Honduras.nytimes+5

The use of the term "reverse slave trade" is a provocative framing rather than an official designation. Historically, the transatlantic slave trade involved the forced transportation of Africans to the Americas; the current deportation policy, in contrast, centers on voluntary or forcibly removed migrants, primarily of African origin, sent to African countries under bilateral government arrangements. While some critics use such language to highlight moral or ethical concerns about these policies, the analogy is not technically accurate because these deportees are not being sent into forced labor or slavery, but rather relocated under migration control agreements.abcnews.go+5

In summary: the US and Uganda have reached an agreement for Uganda to accept certain deported migrants, but these arrangements are highly conditional and controversial; they do not constitute any form of organized "reverse slave trade," nor do they force non-African migrants into Uganda against their will.apnews+5

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/world/africa/uganda-us-deportees.html
2. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uganda-agrees-deal-us-deported-migrants-criminal-records-124837296
3. https://apnews.com/article/uganda-us-deportation-migrants-immigration-crackdown-trump-15edfb4d80677c51c56beb8ab5130cd4
4. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/uganda-agrees-deal-with-us-to-take-deported-migrants-if-they-dont-have-criminal-records/
5. https://www.dw.com/en/uganda-agrees-to-conditional-us-migrant-deal/a-73715803
6. https://www.euronews.com/2025/08/21/uganda-agrees-deal-with-us-to-take-deported-migrants-if-they-dont-have-criminal-records
7. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/uganda-agrees-deal-us-deported-072031373.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa
9. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8868034/
10. https://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/18072007.pdf
11. https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-from-united-states-on-underground-railroad
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slavery_and_serfdom
13. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/08/21/uganda-announces-deal-to-accept-migrants-deported-from-us_6744577_4.html