South Sudan says US visa revocation due to denial of entry to non-citizen

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – South Sudan said on Monday that a U.S. decision to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese citizens was prompted by Juba’s refusal to admit a deportee with another nationality.

On Saturday, the U.S. said it would cancel all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders over South Sudan’s failure to accept the return of its repatriated citizens.

The deportee denied entry by South Sudanese authorities was from the Democratic Republic of Congo who said in an immigration interview at the Juba airport he had been brought there against his will, Juba’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Comprehensive verification processes confirmed that this individual is a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In accordance with immigration protocols, he was not admitted and was subsequently returned to the sending country for further processing,” the ministry said.

“The Government deeply regrets that despite this history of collaboration and partnership, South Sudan now faces a broad revocation of visas based on an isolated incident involving misrepresentation by an individual who is not a South Sudanese national,” it added.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken aggressive measures to increase immigration enforcement, including the repatriation of people deemed to be in the U.S. illegally.

African Union mediators went to South Sudan last week for talks aimed at preventing a new civil war in the country after its First Vice President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest last week.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s government has accused Machar, a longtime rival who led rebel forces during a 2013-18 war that killed hundreds of thousands, of trying to stir up a new rebellion.

(Reporting and Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Bill Berkrot)