US ends deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals

The US is ending temporary deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals, which for more than a decade allowed people from the east African country to stay in the US after escaping conflict.

In a notice published on Wednesday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said conditions in South Sudan no longer met the statutory requirements for temporary protected status. The agency said South Sudanese nationals with status through the programme had 60 days to leave the US or face deportation.

“Based on the department’s review, the secretary has determined the situation in South Sudan no longer meets the criteria for an ongoing armed conflict that poses a serious threat to the personal safety of returning South Sudanese nationals,” the notice says.

In a statement, USCIS said South Sudanese nationals who used the Customs and Border Protection mobile app to report their departure could receive “a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus, and potential future opportunities for legal immigration”.

Temporary protected status gives foreign nationals access to work permits and allows them to temporarily live and work legally in the US when their home countries are unsafe to return to.

South Sudan’s designation, which was first authorised by the Barack Obama administration in 2011 because of armed conflict, expired on Monday after many extensions.

The designation had so far been approved for about 232 people from the country.

The termination is the latest effort by the Trump administration to remove the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the US. Other countries for which the government has ended protections include Cameroon, Haiti and Nepal.

The revocations have raised fears for the safety of returnees, with critics saying they may go back to dangerous conditions.

South Sudan has faced on-off conflict since its independence, which has led to many people being killed and mass displacement.

In 2013, a civil war broke out that killed more than 400,000 people and displaced nearly half the population. A peace agreement in 2018 ended the fighting but observers say recent developments, including the arrest and prosecution of the vice-president, Riek Machar, could plunge the country back into conflict.

Last week, the UN’s commissioner on human rights in South Sudan said he feared that a mix of political power struggles, ethnic tensions and local grievances could cause a renewed slide into full-scale fighting.