South Sudan deports 23 undocumented foreign nationals

South Sudan’s immigration authorities on Wednesday deported 23 foreign nationals for entering the country without passports or travel documents.

Atem Marol Biar, the director-general at the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration, said the 23 aliens were detained last week by the immigration police on arrival at Juba International Airport.

The deported foreigners included Eritrean, Ethiopian and Sudanese nationals. Ten foreigners had transited from Unity State and 13 others arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, from the Paloch area of Upper Nile state.

The immigration department in January 2019 started registration of all foreign nationals living in the country in a bid to deter cross-border crime.

South Sudan shares borders with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic.

Meanwhile, the country also has thousands of its citizens still living in refugee camps in Uganda, DRC, Sudan and Kenya. These refugees were displaced due to the outbreak of conflicts in 2013 and 2016, respectively.