South Sudan confirmed this week that eight convicted criminals, who were deported by President Trump’s administration, are now in its custody.
South Sudan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the eight migrants — who hail from countries such as Cuba, Mexico, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam — landed in Juba, the country’s capital city, on Saturday. The men have no connection to the African country.
The foreign ministry’s spokesperson Apuk Ayuel said to reporters on that the eight men landed at Juba International Airport following “standard deportation procedures undertaken” by the Trump administration.
Ayuel said, according to The Associated Press (AP), that the migrants are “under the care of the relevant authorities who are screening them and ensuring their safety and well-being.”
The Department of Homeland Security told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation on Saturday that the flight with eight migrants landed in South Sudan on Friday. The men were held at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti for weeks.
The Supreme Court enabled the U.S. government in a 7-2 decision on Thursday last week to restart its plan to deport the migrants to South Sudan, the war-torn country that gained independence in 2011.
The nation’s highest court lifted U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s injunction last month, which placed limits on the administration’s efforts to deport migrants to different countries.
The deportations of the group of migrants and acceptance by the South Sudanese government have sparked pushback from some leaders.
“South Sudan is not a dumping ground for criminals,” the executive director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, Edmund Yakani, said, according to AP.
