USA and Australia to deport 413 South Sudanese natives to Juba, South Sudan
4 min readBy PaanLuel Wël, Juba, South Sudan
January 23, 2018 (SSB) — The governments of the United States and Australia are planning to deport a combined total of about 413 South Sudanese natives, majority of them reportedly from the Dinka community alone. Around 227 South Sudanese natives are slated for deportation from the US while more 186 South Sudanese natives are under detention in Australia, awaiting deportation to Juba, South Sudan.
According to federal laws on Immigration and Citizenship from the USA and the Commonwealth of Australia, nationals of foreign countries who have been in the country as permanent residents for less than a decade are subject to deportation to their countries of origin if they engage in the violations of immigration or/and criminal laws.
The 413 natives of South Sudan awaiting deportation to Juba are accused of participating in criminal acts such as armed robberies, mugging, carjacking and home invasions, which make them liable to be deemed as a major threat to public safety. Unbeknown to them, engaging in such violent activities is a major violation of their visa rules which they signed up to as part of their resettlement processes in Australia and the USA.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, the chairperson of the South Sudanese community in Victoria, Australia, Mr. Khot Monoah, said that the 186 people awaiting deportation from Australia “were tried and found guilty. Their visas will be canceled first before they do their appeal…They are people who have fought and injured other people or involved in armed robberies. They face deportation but it is a process.”
Ambassador Gordon Buay Malek, a senior diplomat at the South Sudanese embassy in Washington DC, told Radio Tamazuj that the 227 people awaiting deportation from the US “will be deported at any time because they were charged with misconduct in the US. The embassy has already given them travel documents so that they are deported to South Sudan…If they are rejected by the US, we will receive them as a government because it is our responsibility.”
Yet, this will not be the first time South Sudanese natives have been deported back to South Sudan for breaching various immigration and/or criminal laws in the West. According to Eye Radio, four male South Sudanese natives were deported from the USA and handed over to the Government of South Sudan at Juba International Airport in October 2017.
According to federal laws in the USA and Australia, deported South Sudan natives will forfeit the right to return, not even as a visitor or tourists, to either the United States or Australia. This will come as a big shock to those with families – wife and kids and relatives – who may remain in the West.
Majority of the South Sudanese migrants in the USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are from the Dinka community, which will be hard-hit by the forthcoming deportation. It will be up to the local community leaders – both in the West and back home in South Sudan – to talk to the youth to arrest the escalating situation of youth delinquency and, more importantly, to forestall future deportations.
There is hardly any future in the war-torn South Sudan for the deportees, a grim fact that they will regrettably discover upon their landing at Juba International Airport. South Sudan can’t afford to destroy its future, both at home and in abroad. The choice must be made and the decision implemented vigorously, sooner rather than later.
The very generation that Dr. John Garang anointed as “Seed of the Nation” has gone on self-immolation spree.
PaanLuel Wël, the managing editor of PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB), graduated with a double major in Economics and Philosophy from The George Washington University, Washington D.C, USA. He is the author of Who Killed Dr. John Garang, the editor of the essential speeches and writings of the late SPLM/A leader, Dr. John Garang, published as The Genius of Dr. John Garang, vol. 1-3, as well as a co-editor (with Simon Yel Yel) of President Salva Kiir’s speeches before and after independence: Salva Kiir Mayaardit: The Joshua of South Sudan. You can reach him through his email: paanluel2011@gmail.com; Facebook page: PaanLuel Wël; or Twitter account: PaanLuelWel2011
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