AL JAZEERA: Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington is revoking all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders, accusing the African nation’s government of not accepting the repatriation of its nationals and “taking advantage of the United States”.
“Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them,” Rubio said in a statement on Saturday. “South Sudan’s transitional government has failed to fully respect this principle.”
Rubio added the US would also “prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders”.
It was the first such measure singling out all passport holders from a particular country since President Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, having campaigned on an anti-immigration platform.
South Sudanese nationals had been granted “temporary protected status” (TPS) by the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, with the designation set to expire on May 3 this year.
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The US grants TPS, which shields people against deportation, to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.
Washington “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation”, Rubio said.
South Sudan violence
Recent violence between government troops and armed opposition groups has escalated tensions in South Sudan. Some observers fear a renewal of the civil war that killed 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week urged regional and international leaders to prevent South Sudan from falling “over the abyss” into another civil war.
Guterres warned that the world’s newest and one of its poorest countries is facing “a security emergency” with intensifying clashes and a “political upheaval”.
Rising tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar culminated in the latter’s arrest last month. His party said the arrest collapsed a power-sharing 2018 peace deal that ended years of fighting.
The UN reported clashes between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar outside the capital, Juba.
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Stay home then, you Africans! God knows that you will be far better off at home. The US is NOT the heaven we’ve been brainwashed in believing. It is nothing more than BABYLON which, as prophesied, MUST and WILL FALL. You don’t want to be counted among its ignoble dead!
We must stop act as though visa to America is equated as going to heaven and create reciprocity, in that case even American citizens having properties in foreign country should be bared from returning to Sudan or elsewhere to occupy their property without a visa application,just as trump think tariff will level the playing field in his favor the visa reciprocity world wide will put everyone on even footing, the belt and road initiative that china touted is a genius idea. If Africa and china and Russia and India create new routes for their cargo ship and aeroplane to the Caribbean and free trade zones are created as a win win for the Caribbean and them ,that will cripple America’s economic might. That will create a multipolar world and eng the western hegemony .
Trump needs to make it mandatory for all green card holders to reside in America or risk loosing it lets see what many of you all in Antigua will do.
Why people complain too much about what one president want to do in his country?
We are fine in our Caribbean island with our government? We don’t have greedy and corrupt governments over here? Our government are efficient? Suddenly China and Russia are the good guys? Lmao.. Just because they are against USA dominance doesn’t mean they are good, they want to be what US are…IF you take a look all 3 they want to be the same.. Imperialist Mind to dominate the world. In that war between those big elephants we are the grass under them.. We are choosing to be under the US elephant and have over US Chinese and Russia elephant.. Of course China elephant is giving us Fertilizer to be stronger…si because we are too small that we need to grow little more depending of them in everything. The Belt of China is just to create a dependency of supplies from them and we are falling into it. We are just changing of slave Master.
This is a prime example of where the United States of Africa is needed now more than ever.
United we stand, divided we shall fall, be manipulated and conquered!
Just imagine the effects on the USA if a reciprocal decision was made by “The United States of Africa” to rescind and deny visas to all Americans!
Time for us to get our houses in order. The US economy is more dependent on us consuming their goods and services than they want us to believe.