Uganda receives its first flight of evacuees from Afghanistan

NO SOONER HAD the Taliban marched into Kabul than politicians in Uganda, a mere 5,000km away, were readying for the arrival of evacuees from Afghanistan. “The world will look at Uganda as a reliable partner,” explained one cabinet minister. Another said that evacuees would bring business for local hotels. A third joked, grotesquely, about how Ugandan men were praying for the safe landing of beautiful Afghan women.

The first plane arrived at Entebbe airport on August 25th, carrying 51 evacuees. Up to 2,000 are expected in the coming weeks. They will stay in hotels while American officials review their applications for resettlement in the United States and elsewhere, a process which could take months. Uganda is among two dozen countries, from Kosovo to Costa Rica, that have offered to take in Afghans temporarily; Rwanda is preparing to host the staff and student body of Afghanistan’s only all-girls boarding school. The welcome they have shown puts richer countries to shame, but their motives are not entirely altruistic.