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South Sudan has confirmed it’s “looking after” a group of eight individuals, described as “criminal migrants,” who were controversially deported from the United States. Only one of these individuals is actually from South Sudan. The Trump administration is working to send unwanted migrants to third countries, as some nations are refusing to accept their returnees.
The group includes two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos, and Mexico. This deportation decision faced challenges in American courts.
“They are currently in Juba under the care of the relevant authorities, who are screening them and ensuring their safety and well-being,” the South Sudanese foreign ministry stated late Tuesday. While details weren’t provided, the ministry called it a “careful and well-studied decision” that is part of “ongoing bilateral engagement.” It added that “South Sudan responded positively to a request from the U.S. authorities as a gesture of goodwill, humanitarian cooperation, and commitment to mutual interests.”
However, UN experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak for the UN, have criticised the move.
“International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to … torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,” stated 11 independent UN rights experts.
The deportees initially left the U.S. for South Sudan in May, but their flight was diverted to Djibouti when a U.S. district court temporarily halted third-country deportations. That ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court earlier this month. The group finally arrived in South Sudan on June 5, with an official, who spoke anonymously, saying they were returned by U.S. Marines.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Apuk Ayuel Mayen emphasised Juba’s commitment to its people, including “its nationals returning under any circumstances” and “persons with recognised links to South Sudan.”
This situation unfolds against a backdrop of simmering rivalry between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar, which flared into open hostilities in March. These tensions have reignited fears of a return to full-scale war in the world’s youngest country, where a civil war between 2013 and 2018 claimed an estimated 400,000 lives.
