By Isaac Chol Aguer
This article follows my earlier piece titled “Deporting Citizens… and Smuggling Garbage” published on July 6, 2025, written before the official statement issued by South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In South Sudan, rumors have a short lifespan before becoming official statements.
Last week, I addressed reports about the possible deportation of South Sudanese nationals from the United States, noting that a citizen’s return to their homeland is a legitimate right provided that return does not turn the country into a dumping ground for the world’s rejects.
Now, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issuing its official statement, the picture is clear.
The decision comes directly from President Donald Trump — the current US president — who has ordered the deportation of individuals from various nationalities, including South Sudanese citizens and convicted criminals from Mexico, Cuba, and several Asian countries, with South Sudan designated as their destination.
Faced with this, South Sudan’s government has reluctantly accepted the decision, citing the need to “preserve bilateral relations.”
To be fair, if our government has no immediate diplomatic alternative in dealing with the Trump administration, then it must do one thing — accept on our own terms.
Our citizens abroad, regardless of their past mistakes, are welcome to return home.
Many of them did not leave because they craved burgers and rap concerts.
They fled burning villages, broken futures, and a homeland that, at the time, offered no hope.
Some found education
Some built lives. Some supported families back home. And yes, like any society some lost their way. But they remain our responsibility.
What is unacceptable is for South Sudan to receive convicts and deportees from unrelated nations.
How can a country struggling to contain local gangs like the Unknown Gunmen and Toronto Boys, while its main prison sits barely a few meters from the central bank and the busiest market in the capital, be expected to manage hardened foreign criminals deported from American prisons?
Trump’s coercive diplomacy toward poorer nations is well known. But we must remember: The United States is not Trump alone. If relations are severed today, another president will eventually restore them.
Nations that respect themselves negotiate even in their weakest moments. A country’s dignity is not for sale in a memorandum of understanding.
If we must accept deportees, then the conditions must be explicit:
- Only South Sudanese nationals should be received.
- The United States must fund the construction of proper detention and rehabilitation centers away from the capital’s financial and public districts.
- A reintegration fund should be established for returning South Sudanese to prevent them from becoming fuel for future internal conflicts.
- Lifting any sanctions imposed on South Sudan, with clear, binding mechanisms to support the implementation of the peace agreement, leading to real political and security stability.
It is a tragic irony that while thousands of our own citizens remain stranded abroad unable to return due to the deteriorating economy, the government opens its doors to foreign criminals it has no obligation to accept.
South Sudan is a beautiful country. Yes, some of its people sleep on pavements without breakfast, but it remains our homeland, one born from the blood and resilience of generations.
It deserves better than to be treated as a convenient dumping site for the discarded baggage of global politics.
And it is time our Ministry of Foreign Affairs understood that diplomacy isn’t about signing on the dotted line. It is about defending the honor of a nation and the dignity of its people.