State Minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru on Friday said Uganda is positively considering Israel's request to allow about 500 Eritrean and Sudanese refugees to relocate to Uganda.

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He said only those who already have refugee status in Israel will be allowed in the country

"Uganda accepted the 500 refugees from people from Israel and this is not a problem to Uganda. We already have millions of refugees in Uganda from Somalia, Ethiopia so the few from Israel won’t be a problem to Uganda as a third party country," he said.

In February, Israeli authorities started distributing deportation notices to thousands of African refugees and migrants giving them an ultimatum of 60 days to leave the country or risk being jailed.

Migrants who were ordered to leave expressed fear of being relocated to an East African country saying they would rather be sent to prison -- but Musa Ecweru said those being relocated from Israel have shown willingness to leave.

Uganda is home to over 1.4 million refugees who have fled from violence in neighbouring countries including DRC, South Sudan, Burundi among others.