US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that the United States immediately revokes visas issued to all South Sudanese passport holders due to the African nation’s refusal refusing to accept its citizens who have been dismissed from its United States.
Rubio, in a press release on Saturday, added that the United States will also block all citizens from South Sudan, the most recent country in the world, in the American entrance ports.
He did not blame “the failure of the South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of his citizens repatriated in a timely manner”.
A cornerstone of the immigration policy of President Donald Trump is to eliminate illegal migrants from the United States, with the promise of “mass deportations”.
“It is time for the South Sudan Transitional Government to stop taking advantage of the United States,” said Rubio.
“Each country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely time where another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them,” he added.
This comes when fears grow up that South Sudan can go down to the civil war again.
On March 8, the United States ordered all of its non-urgent staff in South Sudan to leave as regional fighting broke out, threatening a fragile peace agreement agreed in 2018.
In the United States, South Sudanese have already obtained temporary protected status (TPS), which allows them to stay in the United States for a period of defined time.
TP for South Sudanese in the United States had to expire on May 3.
South Sudan, the most recent world nation, acquired its independence in 2011 after the secession of Sudan.
But two years later, following a gap between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar, tensions broke out in a civil war, in which more than 400,000 people were killed.
A 2018 power sharing agreement between the two stopped the fighting, but the key elements of the agreement have not been implemented – including a new constitution, an election and the reunification of armed groups in a single army.
The sporadic violence between ethnic groups and local groups continued in certain parts of the country.
Since its return to duties, the Trump administration has faced international governments for the deportations of their nationals from the United States.
In January, Colombian President Gustavo Petro prohibited two American military flights carrying migrants expelled from landing in his South American country.
Petro sold after Trump promised to place paralyzing prices and sanctions against Colombia.
