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The US is ending temporary deportation protections 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 also said that South Sudanese nationals with status through the programme have 60 days to leave the US before facing deportation from January.
“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 use 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 in the Barack Obama administration in 2011 due to 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. The government has also ended protections for countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Nepal.
The revocations have raised fears for the safety of the immigrants, with critics saying they may return to dangerous conditions.
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South Sudan has faced on-and-off conflict since its independence, that has led to huge numbers of killings and mass displacement.
In 2013, the country descended into a civil war that killed more than 400,000 people and displaced nearly half the country’s population. A peace agreement in 2018 ended the fighting but observers say recent developments, including the arrest and prosecution of vice-president Riek Machar, risk plunging the country into conflict again.
Last week, the UN’s Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned that a mix of political power struggles, ethnic tensions and local grievances threatened a renewed slide into full-scale fighting.
