Kampala, Uganda — Vice President Jessica Alupo has emphasized Uganda’s commitment to international cooperation and regional integration in labour migration, closing the 7th Regional Ministerial Forum on Migration at Speke Resort Munyonyo on Friday.
Delivering President Yoweri Museveni’s message, Alupo hailed the four-day talks as a “critical platform” for expanding regular labour migration channels in East Africa and beyond.
The forum, hosted by Uganda under the theme of skills mobility, decent employment, and safer alternatives to irregular migration, drew ministers, ambassadors, and Gulf-state delegates.
Alupo highlighted Uganda’s open-door refugee policy, with 1.98 million refugees as of February 2026, and its economic plan to create 4.4 million jobs by 2040.
She welcomed partners from Lebanon, Jordan, and the Gulf, and noted Uganda’s chairpersonship of the Regional Ministerial Forum on Migration (RMFM).
The Vice President urged member states’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs to support migrant workers and pledged efforts against trafficking and irregular migration, while building safe return and reintegration programmes.
“The trust placed in Uganda to chair this forum is a responsibility we honour,” Alupo said. “We must translate dialogue into cooperation that expands opportunity and protects our workers.”
The forum concluded with commitments to uphold Uganda’s refugee policy, implement the national employment strategy, and continue the RMFM’s self-financing approach.
