Last week, Ugandan police rounded up truckloads of Rwandan refugees against their will and dumped them across the border in Rwanda. Lured with the promise of asylum status and food, 1,700 refugees in two Ugandan settlements were surrounded by police officers, forced into trucks without their belongings, and driven across the border to Rwanda. Dozens were injured at the hands of the police, children were separated from their parents two men jumped to their deaths from the truckbeds.

The voluntary repatriation campaign of Rwandan refugees in Uganda began in 2003/2004, but many decided to stay, citing legitimate fears of return. After living as refugees in Uganda for over a decade, the governments of Rwanda and Uganda insist that conditions in Rwanda are safe for return--and are now forcibly repatriating Rwandan refugees in violation of international law.

Yet according to the remaining 12,000 Rwandans in Uganda and the Uganda-based advocacy and group Refugee Law Project, there remains a legitimate fear of return to Rwanda as the conditions under which the refugees orginally fled may not, in fact, have substantially changed.

Rwandan refugees in Uganda are set to lose their refugee status in December of 2011, and 98% of their individual asylum claims have been denied.

Sign this petition to tell Uganda to keep control of its police force, uphold international law, and ensure due process for all asylum seekers — as individuals, rather than as a blanket group — in Uganda.