Ugandan Pastor Detained in US Denied Diabetes Drugs – Lawyer

Ugandan pastor Steven Tendo has been denied medication for type 2 diabetes, his lawyer has told a local news outlet in Vermot where the asylum seeker has been working.

In Vermont since 2011, Pastor Steven Tendo is expected to be deported to Uganda. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested the pastor and licensed nursing assistant at the University of Vermont Medical Center this week.

ICE agents later detained Tendo at the Strafford County Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire.

But his lawyer Chris Worth told Vermont Public, an NPR and PBS station, providing independent, community-supported news and programming for the state of Vermont, that the Ugandan pastor had been denied access to his medication.

Worth, also a visiting professor at the Vermont Law School’s Center for Justice Reform Clinic, told the station that Pastor Steven Tendo needed access to a drug called Metformin for purposes of managing his diabetes.

“The government has been notified continuously of this condition. And despite numerous communications and emails and calls since his detention, nothing has happened,” Worth was quoted as telling Vermont Public.

The station also quoted representatives from the office of Senator for Vermont Bernie Sanders’ office as saying they had reached out to the Strafford County Corrections Friday to raise the issue of Tendo’s access to diabetes medication.

According to Amnesty International, “Pastor Steven Tendo arrived in the USA on 20 December 2018 to ask for asylum after fleeing persecution and torture in Uganda.” The organization says it helped stop his deportation then.

“He was held by US authorities in immigration detention since December 2018. He was at risk of being returned to danger in Uganda in September 2020, but emergency global campaign efforts on his behalf prevented his deportation,” Amnesty International noted in 2020.

You can read more on Pastor Tendo’s issue Here.