JUBA – Amnesty International has appealed to the South Sudan government to “immediately disclose” the whereabouts of two third country nationals that the United States deported to South Sudan.
On July 4, the U.S. deported eight men including Vietnamese, Cubans, Laotians, Mexicans and a South Sudanese to Juba under a secret immigration deal in which Juba was seeking warmer ties and the lifting of targeted sanctions.
The South Sudanese national has since been released, a Mexican national was repatriated to his country, but the fate of the other six remains unclear.
Among them are Nyo Myint and Enrique Arias Hierro, who Amnesty International said, have since been arbitrarily detained in an undisclosed location in South Sudan.
“While credible reports say that they are in custody of the National Security Service, no official information regarding the two men’s exact current whereabouts has been shared with their lawyers,” the watchdog said.
Amnesty International calls on Juba to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the two, grant them consistent and unmonitored access to their legal representatives, including local counsel, and immediately clarify the legal grounds of their detention.