“No nation grows by standing still”, Uganda’s Vice President HE Maj (Rtd) Jessica Alupo invoked that spirit as she launched the country’s first National Migration Policy in Kampala, a Cabinet‑approved framework to steer internal, regional and international flows toward poverty reduction and Vision 2040.
The policy, unveiled under the banner “Harnessing Migration for Development through Inclusive and Coordinated Governance,” marries security, labour, health, education and trade into one whole‑of‑government plan.
It pledges safe, orderly migration, stronger border management, migrant‑rights protections and better data—while leaning on remittances, diaspora skills and cross‑border trade as development fuel.
HE Alupo framed migration as Uganda’s enduring reality: a history of hospitality to nearly two million refugees, labour mobility, and family reunion.
“Today is not another document, it is a declaration that we will govern movement humanely and secure benefits for our people”, she said and tasked Internal Affairs and the Inter‑Ministerial Technical Committee with turning words into budgets, programmes and metrics, urging ministries, partners, civil society and the diaspora to take ownership.
Gen. David Muhoozi, State Minister for Internal Affairs, cast the framework as a shield against trafficking, smuggling and exploitation, and a lever for skills transfer.
Development partners, he noted, remain key allies as Uganda aligns the policy with the Global Compact for Migration and pushes protections for workers abroad.
In Alupo’s telling, a migrant‑sensitive Uganda can translate movement into investment, knowledge and resilience—proof that, managed well, human mobility becomes nation‑building.
A migration policy sets the rules for who moves, how they move and what help they get. For citizens it means safer labour migration, consular support, skills recognition and channels for remittances and diaspora investment. For travelers it clarifies visas, asylum, anti-trafficking protection and border procedures.
Before the 2025 framework Uganda managed migration through scattered laws like the 1999 Immigration Act, refugee policies, sectoral guidelines and ad-hoc Cabinet decisions without a single coordinating policy. The 2025 National Migration Policy is the first unified framework.
