A joint report by the office of the Prime Minister and the office of  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees strikes out 352,643 individuals from the official register after establishing that some had died while others registered as refugees yet they are Ugandan nationals

The report indicates that out of the 1,444,856 individuals registered by OPM by March this year, only 1,092,213 individuals representing 76% could be recognized as refugees

The office of the prime minister however says that as the verification exercise was going on, about 62,139 new arrivals were registered bringing the active registered population of refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda to 1,154,352 by end of last month.

The joint report also shows that out of the 352,643  who should not be on the register, 255,490 were absent at the time of verification, 9,481 had  registered more than once,  3,931 were reported to have died while 1,489 were found to be Ugandan nationals

The minister in charge of Disaster preparedness and refugees Hillary Onek says that the Ugandan Government has resolved to deploy Biometrics to all refugee entry points to ensure genuine registration. This as he addressed a joint press conference with the UNHCR country representative to Uganda at the media centre

The head of UNHCR in Uganda Joel Boutroue says that the figures are subject to change given the fact that more refugees and asylum seekers continue arriving in Uganda from different countries. He however says that use of Biometrics will be important in ensuring efficiency and timely response to the needs of the refugees