The Ugandan government has stopped granting asylum and refugee status to people from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia , citing severe funding shortfalls for the significant policy shift.

Hillary Onek, Uganda’s minister for refugees, announced that the government would no longer grant the status to new arrivals from countries “not experiencing war”.

“I have instructed our officers not to give refugee status to citizens from those countries … especially those coming from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia , because there is no war there,” he said late last week.

The decision, from a country seen as one of the world’s most progressive in its approach to migration, has raised concerns that thousands of people will be left in legal and humanitarian limbo.

Onek put the blame on a lack of money.

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