Washington: United States has canceled all visas in the hands of South South Sudanese passport holders after a dispute over the country’s failure to accept the return of its deported nationals in the United States.
The administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has taken aggressive measures to increase the application of the Immigration Law, including the repatriation of people illegally considered in the United States.
The Administration warned that countries that do not quickly recover their citizens will face consequences, including sanctions or visa tariffs.
South Sudan had not respected the principle that each country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to eliminate them, said the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in a statement.
“From immediately, the United States Department of State is taking measures to revoke all visas in the hands of South South Sudanese passport holders and avoid greater issuance to avoid entry to the United States by the headlines of Passports of South Sudan,” Rubio said.
“We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” he added.
It is time for the South Sudan Transition Government to “stop taking advantage of the United States,” Rubio said.
The South Sudan Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The mediators of the African Union arrived in the capital of South South, Juba, this week for conversations aimed at avoiding a new civil war in the country, after its first vice president Riek Machar was put under house arrest last week.
The government of the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, accused Machar, a rival for a long time that he directed the rebel forces during a 2013-18 war that killed hundreds of thousands, of trying to cause a new rebellion.
Machar’s arrest followed weeks of fighting in the state of the Nile of the North between the army and the militia of the white army. Machar’s forces were allied with the White Army during the Civil War, but deny any current link.
The 2013-18 war was largely fought along ethnic lines, with Dinkka combatants, the largest group in the country, claiming behind Kiir, and those of the Nuer, the second largest group, which supports Machar.
